Face in the Photograph
by Aukum
Summary: Before Hakuba ever met Kaito, he had met the original Kaitou Kid in England. Toichi passed on some words of advice to young Hakuba before his death and now, years later, Hakuba wants to repay the favour to Toichi's son.
1. The man in white

A/N: (Dec 15/07) I am going back and editing/re-writing large chunks of the Photo chapters I've already posted to make sure everything lines up with the new plot that this is all going to follow. I'll warn you now that I'm a slow writer and that, for me, writing for Magic Kaito (and Detective Conan) takes a lot of energy and research to pull off. Chapter updates will be slow but I'll do my best.

Warnings: First chapter is still told by Hakuba in 1st person POV. The rest of the fic will be in standard 3rd person POV, though.

* * *

**Face in the Photograph  
**Chapter 0

I wish it were possible to claim that I am not the same naive child I was when I first arrived in the country of my father's birth with the absolute conviction that there was no wrong that my father and his subordinates and, by obvious association, the police force could not handle. It was a marvel to watch that admittedly average looking Japanese man walk onto the scene and expertly separate the matter into what was true or untrue, related or unrelated.

It is embarrassing to admit now but back then, it was like magic to see him and those like him find the truth and bring justice to the criminals. It was incomprehensible to imagine that there really were people desperate enough to take the law into their own hands. However, it simple enough for my childhood self to decide who would or would not be shown mercy. Those who broke the law were wrong and, regardless of their situation, there should be no leniency shown for the few who thought of themselves as somehow exempt from the rules that governed everyone else.

The world was simple: those who disrespected the rules and the police's authority were bad and those that followed the rules were good. It didn't matter if they had a good reason for their actions or not since they broke the rules and that was that. It was how father thought and he was the director of the Department of Investigation, so it had to be true. Although, now, I would be the first to admit that my logic was flawed but that was all the justification I needed back then. There were no reasons for me to believe that the world operated in any other manner than black and white.

White…

It's ironic how my entire world was shaken by a criminal dressed in white.

I had just completed my elementary schooling in Japan when my father decided that it would be best if I returned to England for the summer to familiarize myself with my mother's language and culture before I transferred there for the remainder of my youth. Father still had work to complete in Japan and could not leave with me at that time. It had something to do with assisting an inspector from a nearby prefecture with a case involving a local ne'er-do-well turned international headache. I was given the responsibility of making a solo journey to rejoin my mother and the family in England. For a child my age, the prospect of flying alone promised to be an adventure of epic proportions and I truly thought it would promise more entertainment than it did every other time I had taken the flight in the company of my parents.

It didn't turn out that way.

The entire flight was disappointingly uneventful save for a Japanese magician who had booked the seat next to mine. He took it upon himself to see that I was kept busy and far, far away from anything that promised even the slightest bit of mental stimulation. The Japanese man laughed when I asked if he was asked by my father to be my chaperone until I was safely in the company of my mother and successfully diverted my attention for the rest of the flight with an impromptu magic show.

When we exited the plane and prepared to go our separate ways, I asked the man why he would travel all the way to England just to show off his tricks if Japanese audiences liked him so much. The magician just pressed a white gloved finger to his lips with an impish grin and commented that he had his own reasons and, besides, it was the job of people like me to find out why. But oddly enough, despite his earlier claims to have an urgent appointment with a very special audience, the Japanese magician continued to hover nearby as I waited for my mother to arrive.

Then, mother was there and the man in white disappeared into the crowd without a word. It was as if he had never been there. I think he knew how grateful I was for the company.

It was quite some time before I figured out the connection between my new friend, my father's unexpected arrival the next day, and the incident that dominated the airwaves for the next week. I had my suspicions and pet theories but a lack of concrete evidence to back up my claims kept me from investigating as much as I would have liked. There was nothing more I wanted to do than to follow the trail of clues deliberately left behind in my possession for the longest time.

I became distracted by my consulting job with the police department and time passed. I set aside ideas of finally tracking down that man in white and focused on the concerns of the present, instead of chasing down a ghost. I refused to indulge in the temptation to follow up on my theories about the Japanese magician after I finally returned to Japan. I was to assist on an unusual case in my area of expertise.

At first I had been suspicious when I had received the request. I was familiar with Japanese and international law because of my interest in following up on the case that had brought my father all the way to England but I didn't see how that would be relevant. My fears were unfounded. The request to return to Japan was traced back to my father and his desire for me to have a little more exposure to the other side of my heritage. I arrived to discover that he and mother had conspired to get me transferred to Ekoda High School for the remainder of my schooling before I could be officially accepted on the force. Despite my initial chagrin at being outmanoeuvred, I was grateful that they had acted without my knowledge.

It was there that I crossed paths with a criminal in white.

It was familiar in ways I couldn't remember. Everything from the mannerisms of the thief to the costume brought half-forgotten memories to the fore so I had to know why. Why did he steal when he didn't act like a criminal? There was some sort of reasoning that lay behind his actions. I didn't know how, but I knew it, even though I didn't know what "it" was.

What was the logic behind his actions? What drove him to only seek certain targets? What was the reason for his thievery? When I finally cornered the thief in white at the museum, I had to ask "why".

The criminal in white just smiled and, unexpectedly, the half-forgotten words from my youth came to mind and I knew why.

It was my job to figure out the answer.


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: "This" is conversation, '_this_' is thought.

**Face in the Photograph**   
Chapter 1 

Kaito realized that sometimes, things changed so slowly that you don't realize that the world you've become accustomed to has been irrevocably changed. Other times, things change so fast that you're left breathless and dazed and with no idea how to proceed with your life. Kaito swore that he would never let something catch him off guard ever again, after he learned the truth behind his father's death and found himself thrust into the role of phantom thief. So he began mentally distancing himself from the people around him just in case Something Bad happened and he would be forced into hiding.

Having a good Poker Face helped a lot and he knew that he had his father to thank for that skill, although Kaito didn't know at the time that the Poker Face was intended to be used as an aide in the family profession as kaitou. Kaito assumed that it was something for use on stage, as a magician, but it wasn't until afterwards that he learned how useful that skill was for every day life. Then again, Kuroba Toichi was responsible for passing on many of the skills that made it possible for his son to progress naturally from Magician to Kaitou. As a child, Kaito learned that in order to put on a good performance, he had to know how to hide his emotions and know how to read others'. 

For a magician, if you couldn't accurately gauge an audience's reaction, it could result in an awful performance. For a kaitou, it could result in a humiliating capture...or even death. 

Every day, Kaito was eternally thankful that his father had chosen to teach him the skills to understand people before moving on to the more advanced magic and thievery skills. Of course, there were times that he wished his father had left behind a notebook of useful Kaitou tricks but he could usually handle it. He had to, if he wanted to bring his father's killers to justice.

But it's possible to relax your guard, just a little bit mind you, in the right company. Even the best performer needs to have a place to go where they don't have to worry about being "on" at all times. 

"Kaito!" Aoko huffed with eyes blazing and hands on hips. "You're not even pretending to listen to me, are you?"

"Eh?" Kaito blinked owlishly at her and then smiled widely when he noticed the glint in her eyes and the mop within arm's reach. "Of course I was listening." 

"Then what did I say?"

"You were talking about how the Kid had it lucky this week and how he's a jerk for making cops look like fools, right?" He said and internally praised his father's brilliance for teaching him how to listen to, and more importantly, remember, conversations when your mind was wandering. Very useful.

"Well he IS!" Aoko shouted, annoyed that she was unable to catch him off guard. "He'll be caught one day and that'll show you the police are better!"

"Maybe the Kid is just out of their league," Kaito retorted with a grin. "After all, the Kid's too smart and skilled to be caught by the kind of plans that the cops come up with."

"Then what about Hakuba-kun? He came really close the last couple times!" Aoko scowled fiercely. "He'll probably catch the Kid soon!"

Kaito grimaced. "That was just dumb luck."

As much as he really hated to admit it, Hakuba had been getting closer and closer to catching him so Kaito had been forced to come up with increasingly complex plans to ensure his continued freedom. He liked Aoko's dad and all but he wasn't quite ready to give up the game yet. There were still so many things at stake. However, the British detective was _not_ making it easy to get away with his target anymore, not that it mattered to Kaito since he welcomed the challenge. It made things interesting. 

Kaito leaned back in his chair and glanced across the room, fully expecting to see that infuriatingly superior smile on the detective's face as he tossed a few choice words towards the thief, when he noticed something odd. Hakuba's seat was still empty. 

'_That's odd._' He thought, '_That guy's never missed so much class without a good reason, like a heist. But the problem with that is that I haven't sent out any notices lately..._'

But Hakuba was absent today, just as he had been for the last week. In fact, now that Kaito thought about it, the detective had been absent from the Kid's last couple heists and that would certainly explain the sudden difference in difficulty when it came to getting that night's target and escaping unscathed. Inspector Nakamori was good at catching criminals but he would never be good enough to outsmart the Kaitou Kid. 

Besides, as far as Kuroba Kaito was concerned, there were only two people that stood a good chance of finally stopping the thief and they were Kudo Shinichi and Hakuba Saguru. However, the former had zero interest in searching for phantom thieves and the latter was too much of a prude to have any real fun with, not to mention being punctual to an almost obsessive level. That was the case except lately, when the latter was refusing to show up like he was supposed to and thus made certain magicians very nervous and edgy. 

"Geez," Kaito rest his chin in his hands and stared accusingly at the vacant seat. '_Where did that guy disappear to?_'

"Hakuba has returned to England." A dark female voice murmured into his ear, her breath tickling the hairs on the back of his neck.

Kaito yelped, recoiling violently from the voice and quickly bit back the urge to curse loudly as he spun to face a leisurely smiling Akako. She was up to something. His face automatically schooled itself into a mask of annoyance and bored indifference, betraying none of his fright beyond his initial reaction and renewed irrational suspicions of the witch's ability to read minds.

"Why are you telling me this?" Kaito said blandly.

Akako smile widened, making Kaito's watch her with narrowed eyes as she took her time to chose her next words before answering. "You look like you're worried about him and wanted to know."

"And why would you think that I'd care about where that guy is?" Kaito rolled his eyes and turned away with an exaggerated huff. "I'm not his keeper, even if he does need one."

But Akako was not so easily convinced. 

"You're been restless ever since he left," she pressed. "Although that's only to be expected since the Kid has lost one of his more intriguing adversaries." 

"That's right!" Aoko said with an accusing tone that made Kaito switch his wary gaze to her. "You've been going on about how good that thief has been lately but that's only because he's been underestimating the police! Once Hakuba-kun gets back, the Kid's as good as caught!" 

Kaito smirked at her. "But he hasn't caught the Kaitou Kid yet, has he?" Then, he turned to Akako and said, "I'm not worried about Hakuba and I'm not the Kid, if that's what you're implying. Now both of you, stop ganging up on me!" He said with the slightest hint of a whine. 

"Oh my, did we say something that disturbed you?" Akako said mildly.

He grit his teeth behind a sunny grin that only appeared slightly strained. "No, not at all."

"Is that so...?" Akako smiled.

Aoko sighed as she turned to look at Hakuba's empty desk. This behaviour wasn't like the detective at all and it worried her. "Akako-chan?" She interrupted their argument before it could become dangerous, although for whom, she wasn't entirely certain. 

"Yes?" 

Aoko hesitated. "Do you know why Hakuba-kun had to leave so suddenly? Doesn't he usually only go back to England during long vacations and at the end of term?"

"Hmm… that is a good question, Nakamori." Akako began to say but allowed her words to trail off as she watched Kaito from the corner of her eyes. 

The dark-haired boy leaned his chair back at an angle that threatened to deposit the magician on the ground if he dared to lean back any further. He rest his crossed legs on the top of his desk and his arms were crossed behind his head while he stared at the ceiling with a distant smile on his face. It would have been a perfect image of Kuroba feeling absolute boredom and indifference towards the current conversation if Akako didn't notice how the muscles around his eyes tightened when she replied to Aoko's question. 

'_So he's interested after all,_' Akako thought with amusement. 

"Akako-chan?" Aoko prompted, drawing the other girl's attention back to the matter at hand. 

"Forget it," Kaito said dismissively. "Who cares if she knows anything about Hakuba?"

"Then we won't bother you with our conversation, excuse us." Akako replied, taking Aoko's arm and gently pulling her to the other side of the room as Kaito glared at her in annoyance. He tried to ignore the girls as they whispered to each other but it was possible that Akako was taking the chance to plant dangerous ideas into Aoko's mind. Kaito frowned but resolved to remain silent and uninterested, which lasted the whole of 10 seconds before his curiosity defeated his pride.

"So what're you talking about?" He called over with a grin. "You're not trying to gang up on me again, are you?"

"You'd deserve it if we were," Aoko said as she walked towards her seat. "But it's nothing that concerns you."

"C'mon Aoko!" Kaito pleaded as soon as he noticed that Akako had yet to return to his side of room. "You can tell me, I promise I won't tell anyone else! I'm really good at keeping secrets! …So what were you talking about?"

"I don't know," She said but after taking a good long look at the pitiful expression on Kaito's face and the barely restrained curiosity that was threatening to bubble out of him, she relented. It was better to just tell him than to take the risk that Kaito would come up with some scheme to embarrass her into telling him what he wanted. 

Kaito's smile just beamed.

"Akako-chan was just telling me some interesting things about you, Hakuba-kun and the Kid…"

Kaito interrupted her before she could finish that thought. "What did she say about that guy?"

"You mean, the Kid?" Aoko said innocently.

"No, you know who I'm talking about!" Kaito said.

"No, who could you be talking about?" Aoko blinked quizzically at him.

Kaito opened his mouth to retort hotly when he stopped and groaned, finally noticing the grin that was slowly spreading across Aoko's face. He ran a hand through his hair. "Oh, fine. You win. I'll say it." He grimaced at the look of triumph on her face. Damn, she won this round. 

"This is payback for flipping your skirt on the way to school, right?" 

"Yup!" Aoko confirmed with a smile. "Now admit that you're worried about Hakuba-kun to me and I'll tell you what I know about his disappearance."

Kaito grumbled and muttered several uncomplimentary things under his breath.

"What was that, Kaito?" Aoko asked brightly as she tightened her grip on the mop she had retrieved while speaking with Akako. She was pleased at how Kaito's eyes flickered nervously at the motion.

"I was just saying," he had to pause to swallow his pride and animosity towards the British detective, but needed another moment to vow revenge on Akako. He had to get back at her for doing this to him one way or another… or not. He decided quickly that starting a prank war with somebody like Akako, with her unnatural powers and eerie premonitions and who knew what other tricks at her disposal, could prove to be a Very Bad Idea. The brief glimpses of her abilities when he first met her had been more than enough to convince the magician that crossing Akako was something to be avoided if possible.

Kaito sighed. 

"I just wanted to know what you know about that… Hakuba hasn't been showing up."

Aoko smiled at Kaito, who looked as if saying those words had left a foul taste in his mouth that he wanted desperately to get rid of. "But didn't you say that you weren't worried about him?"

"But that was then and this is now." Kaito chirped brightly, switching tactics. "If somebody has to look after Hakuba and make sure that he knows just how badly he messes up, it might as well be me!" He leaned towards Aoko with a maniac grin. "Besides, weren't you saying how I shouldn't fight with Hakuba so much?"

"Yeeaaaah," Aoko admitted reluctantly. She didn't like how quickly Kaito had taken her advantage and reversed it but she could think of no way to counter his words. And with his convoluted admission of concern, Aoko's own concerns about the whereabouts of their classmate returned with full force. She had felt a bit better after Akako told her where and why Hakuba left so suddenly but now, she wasn't so certain. 

"So?" Kaito asked impatiently, "What do you know?"

"He left class around noon last Friday. You weren't here that day, so Hakuba-kun was spending most of his time reading some foreign newspaper that he brought to class. He said something about how you probably wouldn't be here, so he might as well do something useful with his time."

"Sounds like him," Kaito snorted. "What else?"

"Well, I wasn't really paying close attention to what he was doing since he was just reading. There was an announcement on that he had to take an urgent call in the office and he got really upset, crumpled up the newspaper and left it on his desk. I guess that the call must have had something to do with the Kaitou Kid's heist that night since he didn't come back to class to get his bag."

Kaito remained silent as Aoko stopped to collect her thoughts. His mind was promptly sifting though this new information and comparing it with his previous knowledge about the events that day. Last Friday, he cursed, was the day that he decided to cut class to prepare for his heist. He had come up with a particularly difficult riddle in hopes of stumping Hakuba and had sent it to Nakamori several days before the noted time. It was possible that Hakuba had missed class so he could prepare his latest trap but Kaito quickly discarded that idea. It would not be like Hakuba at all to rush out in the middle of class like that and just disappear without telling anyone where he was going. Not only that, but he wouldn't need a call from the cops to be excused from class on the day of a heist. No, Aoko's theory couldn't be right. It didn't fit Hakuba's usual behaviour and, from the looks of things, Aoko didn't fully believe her theory either. 

She continued, "Well, Akako-chan told me that she saw Hakuba-kun in the library so that's where he must have gone instead of returning to class. She saw him sitting at a table and reading some mythology books as she was leaving school. He must have left sometime after she went home."

Kaito stared at her. "Hakuba? Mythology? But, why?"

Aoko shrugged. "I don't know either, but that's what Akako-chan said he was doing and she has no reason to lie about something like that."

"That's true," he said. "But that doesn't make things any clearer."

"Anyway, she thinks that Hakuba-kun went back to England to look something up that he couldn't find in our library. It probably has something to do with that call he got." Aoko said.

"But didn't you say that he was called to the office about the Kid's heist?" Kaito frowned. 

"That's what I think, but Akako-chan thinks that he left because of the call." Aoko looked troubled. "Maybe the police asked Hakuba-kun to look up something related to the Kid's note and he had to go home to find it. But, I don't know why she thinks he would have to go all the way back to England to find out."

Kaito mentally backtracked and separated the facts from speculation. He paused. 

"Wait a sec, Aoko? What newspaper was Hakuba reading? Did you see the name? Language? Anything?" Kaito demanded, grabbing her arm. "Please tell me you still have the paper!" 

"I… I don't know!" Aoko stammered. 

With a colourful curse threatening to escape his lips, he released her and flopped bonelessly into his chair. All of the animation and excitement that filled his wiry frame vanished instantly and only left behind a sullen and silent Kuroba Kaito. It scared her. His blue eyes stared unfocused and unseeing at the desk as his mind rapidly sifted thorough the facts and cursed the loss of a vital piece of information that could have gone a long way to explain Hakuba's strange behaviour. 

There had to be a connection between what Hakuba had read in the paper, the call to the office, the sudden urge to research mythology and his sudden disappearance but Kaito didn't have enough information. Heist be damned, Kaito wanted to figure this out first. It was possible that Hakuba had finally realized the connection between the Kaitou Kid's recent targets and the legends associated with them and rushed to the library to plan ahead. If the call Hakuba received contained some clue that set the blonde's mental gears in motion then that would explain things.

Except, that theory couldn't account for Hakuba's impassioned response to an article in the newspaper and being interrupted by the intercom. Nor could that theory explain why Hakuba would cut class for a whole week. A few days could be explained away but it simply wasn't in the detective's nature to ignore a notice from the Kid without a damn good reason. Or, now that he thought about it, why Hakuba would have to leave the country to research myths about gems when Kaito himself didn't bother tapping information networks beyond what was readily available in Japan.

Not that Hakuba knew that. 

'_Why does that guy have to be so hard to understand?! ARGH! He's pissing me off and he's not even here!_'

Aoko hesitated and swallowed hard before gathering her courage to interrupt Kaito's thoughts. His eyebrows were drawn low over eyes that twitched with annoyance every few seconds. Normally his eyes would glitter brightly with his love of mischief and his ever-present smile would be plastered on his face as it always was. But at the moment, Kaito's eyes were dull and dark with some emotion that she didn't recognize. He seemed unaware of his surroundings as his full attention was focused inwards. Aoko noticed that the smile was still present but it definitely was not one of his usual smiles, it was mocking and sinister and belonged on the face of a criminal like the Kaitou Kid and not on the innocent face of Kuroba Kaito.

"Kaito?" Aoko cringed at how weak her voice sounded and tried again. "Kaito."

"Hmm? What is it, Aoko?" He looked up at her quizzically with a warm smile on his face. 

She blinked and began to wonder if she had really seen anything except the usual Kaito that she had always known. A quick shake of her head dismissed any lingering worries about the hauntingly familiar expression on his face. 

"If you really want to try and read the paper that Hakuba-kun was looking at, you should check his book bag." Aoko said, "I think I remember putting it in there."

Kaito brightened. "You still have it?!"

"I brought it to his house." Aoko answered with a giggle as she watched Kaito, who suddenly appeared to be having great difficulty deciding if it would be more appropriate to look pleased or horrified by the news. "Why are you so interested in that paper anyway? Have you figured something out? You have, haven't you?" 

She eyed Kaito accusingly.

"You went to Hakuba's house, eh?" Kaito drawled with a mischievous smile. "So that means you know where it is and had the keys to get inside."

"Well, yeah. He had all his stuff in his bag and…" Aoko trailed off as her brain caught up with Kaito's words, and what he was suggesting. "KAAITOOOO!" 

He just laughed and hopped out of range as Aoko grabbed her previously forgotten mop and swung at the nimble magician. And again, and again, and again, only to miss Kaito by centimetres as he dodged with practiced ease. It wasn't long before all thoughts and concerns about Hakuba's disappearance and any peculiarities about Kaito's behaviour fled from Aoko's mind as she found herself taunted into greater levels of rage and embarrassment. 

* * *

It wasn't until after the final bell had rung and Aoko had been escorted safely home that Kaito had the chance to devote his full attention to the mystery surrounding Hakuba's sudden disappearance without distraction. If he wanted to know what had upset the stoic detective enough to make him leave the country as Akako suggested, even though Kaito wasn't ready to accept the truth of that claim yet, he would have to find a way to get into Hakuba's house to look for the bag and the newspaper that Aoko returned. There were a lot of questions that could be answered by a thorough search of Hakuba's home but not all of the questions Kaito wanted answered were necessarily related to the matter of his disappearance. The magician certainly had some mischief in mind. 

Kaito pressed the hidden switch in the painting of Kuroba Toichi and stepped into his father's work room. He had to prepare for tonight's heist. Or at least, that was what he was intending to do until he was sidetracked once again by the puzzle presented to him by the girls. 

It would be ridiculously easy for somebody like Kaito to get inside Hakuba's home, especially since he doubted that Hakuba would expect to be visited by a certain moonlit thief and would take the necessary precautions. Even if Hakuba did take precautions, it would hardly be enough to keep Kaito out if he really wanted to get inside. No, the real problem lay in the fact that Kaito had absolutely no idea where to find Hakuba Saguru's house. Of course he could just _ask_ Aoko where it was but he had already swallowed enough pride for today. It galled him to admit the lack of knowledge even to himself, since he usually made it a point to keep an eye on anybody that could reveal who he was and present a threat to himself and the people he cared for. 

'_It's probably because I see that guy all the time at school and heists,_' Kaito thought as he absently shuffled a deck of cards to load into the card gun. '_I don't need to know where he lives if he's always following me around._'

Kaito shook his head with a rueful smile as he set the card gun aside to prepare the smoke bombs. It would be lying if he said that ever expected that he would ever voluntarily want to go to Hakuba's house for any reason other than to leave a nasty surprise for the British detective. It was risky enough for Kaito to spend all that time with him at during the day at school and at night during a heist without giving that guy any additional chances to figure out who he was. 

Even though it was so much fun to dangle tantalizing clues in front of Hakuba's nose about his identity only to snatch them away at the last moment. 

One of these days, Kaito resolved that he would take a good look at his sense of self preservation and do something about his habit of baiting dangerous people. Really.

A glance at his watch informed Kaito that he had spent far too much time thinking about the problem and would really have to speed up his preparations if he wanted to make it to the museum on time. It wouldn't be right if the Kaitou Kid failed to show up at the appointed time, even if it was highly unlikely that the Kid would be encountering a great deal of difficulty this time. The resident pain-in-the-neck was gone and would definitely be unable to show up in time to foul up what would otherwise be a splendid performance. Without that guy hanging around the museum and only having Inspector Nakamori's men to worry about, Kaito figured that he was justified in cutting a few corners to make it there on time. 

'_I just hope that dad's murderers don't show up today._' Kaito though as he slipped out of his street clothes. '_But they've been quiet ever since that first time that I saw them and the target tonight shouldn't be the Pandora._'

A grin spread across the wild-haired boy's face as he pulled on the layers of white clothes that were the Kaitou Kid's trademark. All worries about the men after his life that may or may not come after him fled from his mind as he turned his attention to more pleasant matters. 

Like how much easier tonight's heist was going to be.

"This is going to be great! The only guests tonight will be Nakamori-kun and the Kaitou Task Force." Kaito grinned maniacally as he pulled on the Kid's gloves. "It's been too long since I've been able to put on a really spectacular performance!" 

It wasn't long before a familiar, electric hum of excitement and tension sang though the thief's veins like a drug. It was almost time for another Kaitou Kid performance and it was going to be something unforgettable. As much as Kaito understood how wrong his night job was intellectually, he could not deny how quickly he had become addicted to the dangers of sending a notice and sneaking into a building, past all defences and security, and to make off into the night with a spectacularly memorable exit. 

The hang-glider was definitely one of his favourite ways to escape, Kaito thought as he secured the collapsed package containing said glider onto his back.

Beyond the enjoyment that came from putting his skills, intelligence and expertise to practical use as a phantom thief, he had met some very interesting adversaries. They were equals in intelligence and cunning, although Kaito felt that they still had a ways to go before reaching the thief's level, but what was most important was that they liked to play the game of Phantom Thief and Detective with the infamous criminal 1412. Kaito would be the first to admit that there was a heavy burden that accompanied the white hat and monocle but now, now he could have some fun as he worked. 

It made things bearable. 

There were so few people that could fully appreciate the depth of his best plans and riddles so it wouldn't be hard to understand why, every now and then, Kaito would actively seek the company of the genius teen detectives on one of his heists. It was intriguing to pit the cunning mind of a master thief against the intelligence of a great detective and watch the battle to see which one would come up victorious. A loss to one of them was nothing to be embarrassed about, although that didn't ease the blow to Kaito's ego when his plans failed to go smoothly and he was forced to improvise or risk losing the target. 

Yes, a battle of wits with an equal was a refreshing break from the monotony of escaping from the police's traps. Even though Kaito would never tire of seeing Inspector Nakamori's face contort with rage when his schemes failed to catch the Kaitou Kid and fell apart in front of his eyes in a burst of brightly coloured smoke and confetti, he welcomed the challenge that the genius detectives offered. It was absurdly satisfying to know that you had butted heads with one of the great deductive minds and managed to escape unscathed with target clutched firmly in hand. 

That made the risk of inviting them to the heist more than worth it. 

That was why Kaito wanted to know where Hakuba disappeared to. 

Knowing that the British detective was in the area but wouldn't come to one of his heists disappointed Kaito more that it should have. Then again, Hakuba was one of the few people that possessed the kind of intelligence that inspired the kind of respect that compelled Kaito to send notices to directly challenge the detective's skills.

Kaito's hands stilled in mid-air, white cape threatening to slide from slack fingers, as startled blue eyes widened. That's why. It had been bothering him all week, but now he knew why the last several heists seemed so easy. So routine. So… boring. The heists were planned with the expectation that somebody with above average intelligence would interfere but the blonde never showed up. The plan proceeded without a hitch but the victory seemed dulled by the ease. There was no challenge. 

"Well, that's one problem solved." Kaito smiled dryly. 

Nimble gloved fingers resumed their motion by settling the cape across his shoulders and clipping it into place, gathering up that night's tools and tucking them away into hidden pockets, double checking the disguises for his entrance and exit from the museum, taking one last look at the floor plans and memorizing the key points before placing the papers on a shelf and then finally putting on the white top hat and monocle to complete the transformation from Kaito to Kaitou.

He walked up the stairs to the roof and pushed open the hidden trapdoor.

"Neither Kudo nor Hakuba have been invited to tonight's performance so I will only have Nakamori-kun and the Kaitou Kid Task Force as my audience. If luck is on my side, tonight will be the Kid's last show." Kaito laughed in the smooth, dark tones of his alter-ego. "I can only imagine Hakuba's disappointment if he returns to find that the Kaitou Kid has retired." 

The thief ran soundlessly across the tiles of the roof and bound onto the next building, hurrying along his sky-level road towards the museum that lay a short drive away. He could already see the distant searchlights of the police department scanning the velvet sky and illuminating the regal building like a beacon. They were waiting for the Kid's arrival and were determined to make the thief work to get the gem, even though Kaito knew that it was a futile effort. There were no guests of honour at this performance but it would be rude to keep his audience waiting.

Kaito lengthened his stride to reach the last building before the highway and leapt down onto the roof of the cross-town bus with a muffled thump. He crouched low to avoid notice and waited for the bus to turn onto the last stretch of its route through the residential district before changing into his second disguise of the evening. The bus puffed and roared as it left Kaito's neighbourhood and turned onto the final stretch of road that lead to the museum. 

The Kaitou Kid slid from the roof of the bus and disappeared into the crowd of onlookers surrounding the museum as the clock's hands ticked closer to 11pm. 

"Time for the show to begin."


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I hope the action sequences and my attempts to build suspense were successful, I don't usually write detective fiction. 

**Face in the Photograph**   
Chapter 2

The Kaitou Kid fought hard to suppress his laughter and keep his voice level. He knew better than to tempt the fates but the opportunity to antagonize Inspector Nakamori was just too tempting to ignore. What was the fun of being on a heist with Nakamori as your audience if you couldn't have a little fun with him? There was a very good reason why the Kid, both his father and himself, went out of their way to deliver theft notices to Aoko's father whenever they could. It was surely a mutual love of parading the answer to Inspector Nakamori's problems in front of his blind eyes. This was just one more thing that the thieves had in common but Kaito wondered if his father had passed on the hobby of teasing the police or if it was simply something that ran in the family. Sort of a package deal that came with being a Kuroba and a phantom thief. 

'_Not that it matters_,' Kaito thought with a mental shrug as he strolled up to Nakamori and tapped him on the shoulder. '_It's not like the genius detectives are going to be able to mess up tonight's performance, so I might as well enjoy myself!_'

"Inspector! I'd like moment of your time, if you don't mind." Kaito said in the thin, watery tones of the museum director. 

"What IS it?! The Kid could show up at any moment!" Nakamori snapped.

Kaito recoiled from the venom in the policeman's voice and choked down his laughter, concealing it as a nervous coughing fit. "Are you sure that you will be able to stop the Kaitou Kid? It seems like you've called an awful lot of men to handle a single thief." 

"The Kid is no ordinary thief!" Nakamori snarled, "He's been the bane of my existence for over a decade!" 

"My, it must be embarrassing to keep losing to one man..." He murmured and shuffled away from the fuming inspector. "In any case, the best of luck to you."

Inspector Nakamori decided at that moment that he should take the chance to fully articulate his opinions of the thief in white and nosey people that doubted his abilities. Both thieves and nosey directors should be wise enough to keep themselves as far from the police during an operation as humanly possible if they wanted to avoid some unpleasant consequences. Also, if said people could not keep themselves out of trouble then they had better make themselves useful because they would otherwise find themselves spending the rest of the evening at the police station. 

Kaito decided that this was probably a very good time to get some distance between himself and Nakamori. This decision had nothing to do with fear of the inspector since Kaito could have spent all evening provoking him, but rather, there was a very important appointment that he could not be late for. 

There was a certain professionalism involved with being a good phantom thief that he embraced for reasons that appealed to both his own personal pride as well as the yearning to live up to the legacy that his father had begun. The Kaitou Kid that the world knew was played by Kuroba Toichi; Kuroba Kaito was just an understudy filling the role in the lead actor's regrettable absence. The confusion didn't bother him, it certainly helped in his meetings with Kaitou hunters, but there were times that Kaito wished that there were people that could recognize the difference between the first and second phantom thief. He couldn't believe that out of all the people that hunted and studied the Kid, not one would notice the differences in their performances and draw attention to it. Kaito prided himself in his ability to mimic his father's methods and style when necessary but he also knew that many of the tricks that he used were new, original things invented by the second Kid that the first would never have used. 

If Kaito knew what kind of tricks the first used. 

There were only a handful of people that knew the Kaitou Kid's performances no longer starred Kuroba Toichi, but the son, Kaito. It was no great surprise to learn that these same people were the ones that Kaito respected and encouraged to participate in his other life... with the exception of Akako since she, quite frankly, scared the daylights out of him and liked to show up uninvited even when Kaito wanted to keep a nice safe distance between them at all times. 

The hands of the aged bronze clock in the museum's main hall crept laboriously towards the promised hour, reminding Kaito that this was not the time to be worrying about the past when there were still many things in the present that needed to be taken care of. 

It was a simple matter to exit from the hall, slipping past the patrolling officers and hired security guards, and walk towards the hidden inner rooms of the museum. Kaito walked with the purposeful stride of the museum director and firmly ignored any and all people that tried to engage him in conversation. The way you carried yourself when you moved made a world of difference in how people perceive you and he was one of the leading experts in the field of deception. It was as easy as acting like you knew where you were going and what you were doing to convince most people that it wasn't worth their time to bother you. Couple that with the disguise of a museum director with a hobby of engaging people in excruciatingly long, one-sided conversations about the past and it was like having a pass to explore any part of the museum without interruption.

This made the job of getting to the locked storage room where tonight's target was kept, much easier. 

Nakamori's police were set up in the main hall to protect the gem on display but that was not the one that the Kaitou Kid was after. It was a very beautiful stone that Kaito made a mental note to steal at some later date but the one he was after had just been rotated out of the show in preparation for an exhibition of several ancient European pieces. The exhibit was the commence in a week but the other pieces had yet to arrive so the gem had been locked away in the safest room in the museum.

'_Not that it matters,_' Kaito thought as he turned the last corner before the storage room. '_Nakamori-kun must have thought that increasing the amount of patrols would be able to make up for the lack of a real strategy created by someone that thinks like me.'_

Kaito almost found it insulting how so many people kept on underestimating the Kaitou Kid's abilities and intelligence. They were dealing with the legendary International Criminal 1412, the Kuroba's, and not some average thief with average skill that could never attract the kind of infamy that they did. 

_'...that _I_ do_,' Kaito reminded himself. 

It was amusing in a really cynical and non-daytime-Kaito sort of way. The police never seemed to learn from their frequent encounters with the phantom thief and persisted in using rehashed versions of the same old plans that might have worked on the previous Kid. While it probably seemed like a good idea, the only problem was it was that he wasn't the same Kaitou Kid. It had only taken Kudo a single meeting to understand Kaito's methods enough to seriously jeopardize an important heist and that was what drew Kaito's interest. 

The magician passed an open invitation to Kudo's friends some time later in hopes of attracting his attention and was rewarded with a child's interference. Only, this child called himself Edogawa Conan even though he thought and acted like Kudo. Conan had even used knowledge of the Kid's tricks and methods gained from Kudo's first encounter at the clock tower. It didn't take Kaito too long to do some research and find out the truth behind Kudo's disappearance and Conan's appearance. The shrunken detective was very good at causing trouble during a heist but his lack of expertise in phantom thieves showed. Kaito wouldn't hesitate to use the same kind of trick in front of a critical audience if he was absolutely confidant of his ability to deceive them.

'_Regularly butting heads with the so-called genius kaitou specialist really forces you to think on your feet. I suppose I should thank Hakuba for that, at least._' Kaito snickered as he knelt before the locked door. '_Although he won't appreciate being used as practice for other great detectives._'

Kaito admitted to himself that with a famous kaitou detective as your regular opponent, a famous murder detective paled slightly in comparison. The other detective would need to fine another edge to give him a notable advantage over either the thief or the kaitou detective, unless Kudo was withholding something during their battles. It was in that respect that Hakuba had proven himself as the most dangerous. But regardless of whoever was his opponent, Kaito knew he had to be careful. He was, after all, still dealing with geniuses in the art of making a thief's life that much more difficult.

'_And speaking of being careful_,' Kaito shook the thoughts from his head and rummaged in his pockets for the key-card he had prepared earlier. '_It's almost time for me to make my appearance. This isn't the time to go drifting off into space._'

He raised a white-gloved hand and swiped the card through the electronic key lock only to have the mechanism beep negatively at him. Kaito frowned and tried swiping the card slower, hope that was all it was going to take to get the lock to recognize his duplicate as the original and waited impatiently. If the system didn't hurry up and read the damn card and let him into the room to get to the gem, then somebody was going to see him and ask what he was doing. It was going to be very difficult to convince the police that the museum director was unable to get his own keys to work on this night. 

A small thread of fear snuck into Kaito's mind with relative ease as the thief thought about the possibility that he made a mistake when creating the card. Kaito had performed as the Kid in this particular museum before but had failed to escape with the target due to a certain British detective's inference. Now, the owners had taken to making last minute changes and upgrades to the security systems before and after big exhibits to complicate the Kid's plans. These electronic locks were also new and Kaito did not have the chance to study them in detail before the heist. 

Actually, Kaito had Inspector Nakamori himself to thank for passing on this vital piece of information.

Kaito was over at the Nakamori's house to return some books he had borrowed from Aoko for a school project when he overheard a conversation as he was passing the kitchen. It was Aoko's father and, as the lack of profanities in his language indicated, he was on the phone with someone important. Nakamori was confirming that the necessary changes to the museum's internal security system would not interfere with police operations. Luck must have been on Kaito's side that day because as skilled as the magician was at manufacturing and maintaining tools and gadgets for his work as the Kid, bypassing electronic key-locks on the spot was not one of Kaito's fortes. 

A fact that was making itself painfully clear as the lock repeatedly informed him. 

'_I should have checked it before I left._' Kaito growled irritably. 

The card was stuffed it into a pocket with one hand while a screwdriver was removed from another pocket with the other. He sucked in a deep breath, held it for a second, then released it while forcing calm onto his mind and purging the tension from his body. He couldn't afford to lose his concentration while he was working. Kaito noted that his hands shook slightly from nerves stretched taut with the irritation of having one of his tools fail him and took another breath. It took a third second before he was able to discard the concerns of Kaito and adopt the cold and analytical mind that was part and parcel of the Kaitou Kid's poker face. 

'_There._' Kaito opened his eyes and refocused on the electronic key-lock, quickly pushing away the annoyance of losing his concentration during the heist again. It was a good thing that he only had Nakamori and the police to worry about since the teen detectives would have capitalized on Kaito's distraction already. '_If the card isn't going to work, then I'll just have to rewire this thing and bypass the electronic lock._'

He froze. Down the hall came the echo of footsteps. One...two...... four people. One the hired security guards' patrols. From the sound of the intervals, they should arrive at his location in less than a minute. Damn it. Kaito turned back to the door and removed the screws from the faceplate in quick movements that wasted no time.

Because it was almost eleven pm and Kaito was almost out of time. 

Echoing down the hall came the first loud reverberating bong of the museum clock as it began to mark the countdown to the eleventh hour. Kaito ripped the face plate from the lock and hastily placed it and the screwdriver on the ground. Dexterous fingers pushed into the mass of wire and plastic, searching for and extracting the thin green board that controlled the electronics.

The clock struck a second time and Kaito examined the board, relieved to discover that he recognized the type. He stripped the colourful plastic casings from the wires, cut a couple and twisted the ends together before reconnecting one wire to the board with a piece of copper wire. The guards' footsteps were getting louder.

The clock struck a third time. The card was swiped through the mechanism once more and the door finally unlocked. Kaito stuffed the wire cutters, screwdriver and card away while hastily applying some adhesive tape to the sides of the face plate before jamming it back into position with his free hand.

The clock struck a fourth time and Kaito pushed open the door to the storage room to rush inside. He turned quickly and slid the door shut soundlessly as he heard the sound of the security patrol rounding the corner. He tried to lock the door but found that his tampering prevented the door from closing properly so he conjured up a small rose to wedge into the space between the lock and the door, temporarily holding it shut. 

By the time the museum clock had struck a fifth time, the phantom thief already had goggles in place to examine the infrared laser trip-wires. There was no time to plan things out, Kaito had to trust his skill and instincts as he began to weave through the invisible net with heart pounding. This was going to be close.

The clock struck a sixth time and Kaito slipped, miscalculating the distance between the laser trip-wires. He caught his breath is an anxious hiss while his heart pounded in his chest, adrenaline chasing through his veins like a drug. The Kaitou Kid desperately fought to regain his balance. He grit his teeth and threw his weight backwards while leaping high enough to clear the wire at his ankles, the thief's mind frantically recalculating angles and positions. 

Kaito landed in a crouch and waited.

The seventh chime of the museum's clock was drowned out by a deafening clamour of alarms. The Kaitou Kid swore internally at his slip but automatically buried his emotions deep inside. This wasn't the time to be worrying. Kaito allowed nothing to show on his face as he crossed the final metres and reached for the display case holding tonight's target. 

'_Nakamori-kun and the Kaitou Task Force will be here any moment._'

The clock struck an eighth time and the thief was twisting the thin metal picks in the depths of the single key lock. Kaito was almost disappointed that this was the last line of defence for the gem, even if he was currently appreciative of final obstacle's simplicity during this stage of the heist. It took another second and a quick twist of the wrist to release the internal mechanisms.

The Kaitou Kid was already reaching inside the case to retrieve the jewel when the clock struck for the ninth time. The sloppiness of the performance up to this point was a definite setback and Kaito knew that he only had himself to blame for getting lazy. However, the Kid had the target so he allowed himself the luxury of admiring the jewel before tucking it safely away into a hidden pocket in his vest. 

'_Now, it's time salvage this night by making a clean exit._' Kaito mused with a mocking grin. '_I can't let these mistakes shake me._'

The clock struck a tenth time and the Kaitou Kid was relocking the display case. A cheeky "thank you" note with the scribbled caricature of the Kid was left in the jewel's place on the velvet cushion. Kaito was in a hurry but that didn't mean that he was going to completely abandon his showmanship. And with that task completed, the Kaitou Kid hurried towards the only exit from the room.

The clock struck an eleventh time. 

The museum was plunged into darkness. 

The Kaitou Kid swore and glared at the ceiling in a mixture of bewilderment and trepidation. Cutting the electricity was not something planned by him. In fact, Kaito thought he was using that trick too often lately and had decided to leave the electrical grid alone for a while to mix things up. This was certainly not his doing, so who was it? He doubted that a black out be so perfectly timed with his notice and getaway to be a mere coincidence. 

Somebody must have shut off the power.

The possibility of Inspector Nakamori being behind the confusion was entertained briefly before being discarded. As much as Kaito liked to scoff at the police's intelligence, Nakamori learned from previous encounters with the Kaitou Kid that doing something as foolish as cutting the power during his operation could only assist the thief's efforts. It couldn't be Nakamori or one of his men. It had to be someone else. 

'_Could one of those detectives be here...?_' Kaito shook his head and discarded the idea. That idea was as likely as Nakamori being behind the power outages, unless the inspector accidentally overloaded the power grid with too many search lights. The thief pulled his attention back to the matter at hand. 

"What's going on here?" Kaito murmured. He knew that Kudo, or rather, Conan, wouldn't be allowed to come to the museum on his own and he heard nothing about the famous Sleeping Kogoro attending this performance. Kudo's rival, that Great Detective of the West was... well... in the West and nowhere near Ekoda. And Hakuba was still missing... but Kaito resolved to deal what _that_ particular problem later. 

'_No doubt Nakamori-kun and his men think that this is all my fault._' Kaito smiled as he pulled out his third disguise of the evening. '_In any case, there's no reason why I shouldn't take advantage of this blackout. Hey, it saves me the trouble of coming up with my own way to escape from the Task Force._'

The easy grin never faded from Kaito's face as his hands moved quickly to replace the Kaitou Kid with an anonymous officer on loan from another department to take part in the latest Kid hunt. It was true that the power outage could prove to be very advantageous to the thief due to the coincidental timing and if Kaito didn't know better, he would have assumed that he was behind it as well. The museum lost power less than ten seconds after Kaito set off the alarms and so the police would either assume that the Kid made a mistake before he appeared, or not notice at all. 

But in this chaos, it was more likely that the discrepancy in timing would be forgotten since the backup generators had not been activated yet. They were taking too long to restore the power and Nakamori would never allow such an elementary mistake to happen without outside interference. The generators were probably sabotaged.

"Damn it, who's interfering with my heist?" 

All of the Kaitou's senses were on high alert as he crept towards the door and pressed his back against the cold cement wall. Worries about showmanship and putting on a good performance were laid aside as greater concerns made themselves known. He knew better than to draw unnecessary attention to himself when people dangerous enough to murder his father were around. 

Gloved fingers lightly ran over the space between the door and the frame to examine the locking mechanism. It would appear that Kaito's previous modifications to the lock kept the safety mechanism from sealing the room when the power was cut. 

This was very lucky for the thief for several reasons.

The storage room was too deep inside the museum complex for any artificial light from the streets to illuminate the inside of the halls. Everything was dark, so dark that it was hard to tell if it was caused by a problem with the lights or a problem with his eyesight. It would take another minute or two before his eyes would fully adjust to the difference in light and so he had to depend on his other senses until then. 

Deep in the pit of his stomach, the thief knew that he was rapidly losing control over the situation, the night, the performance, _ everything_. Everything was going wrong and now a third party entered the equation to further complicate things. Kaito feared the worst but he knew that he needed a lot more information before beginning to form a theory about what went wrong. All the same, while he trusted his abilities and was assured of his exceptional skills at improvisation, it was going to be difficult to maintain the illusion of control.

Kaito's fingers slid along the space in the doorframe while he thought, searching for the silk flower he used earlier to hold the door shut while he crossed the room. 

Maintaining the illusion of control, Kaito remembered his father telling him once, was one of the most important and difficult things for a performer to learn. Even if you could keep any panic from showing on your face it would be worthless if your actions told a completely different story. It was like an advanced version of the Poker Face that Kaito had enough trouble mastering on its own, without anything extra to worry about. To be considered a truly skilled performer like his father, Kaito needed to be able to maintain the illusion of being in control in all situations, especially ones that created a lot of internal and external distractions. 

The reason Toichi spent so much time teaching his son these lessons was because, sometimes, the illusion of being in control of a situation can be as powerful as actually having it. Magicians needed to be able to trick people into thinking that they the masters of the stage and their actions. If a person was able to radiate enough authority, the chance that somebody would find a reason to contradict you at that moment would be decreased. 

Of course, the young Kaito didn't quite understand all of that so Toichi said to him: "In short, showing no uncertainty makes it easier to convince people to suspend their disbelief and get caught up in the magic woven by people like you and me. A good magician needs to be able to fool their audience in any situation."

'_There it is._' Kaito smiled, trailing his fingers over the small silk flower. '_Well dad, this situation is really going to test my skills._'

Kaito pulled the door open a couple centimetres to allow the first muffled pieces of information about the situation to enter the room. 

There were the distant sounds of clattering footsteps, shouting from several people, replies hollered back and more running. The distinct and harsh crackle of white noise as a radio was activated and a voice, a young man trying to sound calm, demanding to be briefed on the current situation and to receive updated orders. A reply came but most of the words were drowned out in the distortion. 

The more experienced officers were easily distinguished from the younger and hired security officers patrolling the halls due to the differences in the anxiety heard in their voices. Some voices remained calm and even as they radioed in their position and situation to Nakamori and whoever else was organizing the operation while others answered in short, anxious phrases. There were quite a few people in the museum that weren't regulars on the Kaitou Kid Task Force. This would make it much easier for Kaito to misdirect the police to slip outside. All it would take is a false identification of the Kid.

'_Hmm? It sounds like the patrols are leaving in the area in a hurry..._' Kaito waited for the footsteps and conversations to fully fade away. '_Nakamori-kun must have called them back._'

This was a good time for the Kid to make his escape, he just had to join the crowd of officers heading for Nakamori's position in the main hall before sneaking away to an exit. The roof would probably be the nearest exit from his current position but it would also be the exit that had the most surveillance so the front door would probably be best. 

The feeling that something was not quite right prevented Kaito from rushing out of the room, even though he knew that staying put was just as dangerous. His instincts were screaming for caution, telling him to tread quickly but quietly here since he had just awoke from a pleasant dream to find himself in a den of sleeping lions. If he made a mistake now, all of the effort up to this point would be wasted. 

He had to move. 

Now.

Kaito reached into his vest under his jacket and removed the card gun from its holster before easing the door open, but only just enough for him to slip into the hall. Empty. The hall was completely empty. He ran soundlessly through the darkened halls and hesitated when the he reached the last turn before returning to the public areas of the museum. The gun was eased just far enough around the corner to allowed the thief to see down the adjoining hall in the reflection.

Nothing. 

Kaito calmed his racing heart and focused his attention on the background sounds. He could hear the footsteps and voices and movements of the people that as they hurried away from Kaito's position. It would seem that some were trying to restore the power to the building while others were hurrying back to their positions to wait for the thief in white to appear. 

'_No, wait_.' Deep blue eyes narrowed behind the Kid's monocle as he listened longer to the pieces of conversation. 

The police weren't _waiting_ for the Kid to appear during their patrols since they received a report that the someone had been spotted inside the newest wing of the museum. If Kaito had been unable to enter through the front door, he would have taken advantage security flaws in the new wing due to the construction to enter. Whoever it was, they were doing a good job of causing a commotion.

'_Oh well,_' Kaito shrugged and straightened the jacket of his police uniform. '_I guess the roof really is out of the question. I don't want to get mixed up in the mess if the other guy ends up being another international thief after the same thing I am._'

He turned away from his original route towards the roof to enter the main hall, if he had to leave through the front doors then he might as well find out what was going on from Inspector Nakamori. Kaito was determined to find out what Nakamori was planning to do to the Kid and the other intruder and if the inspector had any other unpleasant surprises waiting for the thief. If all of these events ended up being part of a very elaborate feint to catch the phantom thief's attention and lure him out so the police could finally catch him, Kaito would be happy to add Nakamori to his short list of "people I need to worry about making my life more difficult." 

'_After, of course, the Kaitou Kid escapes again with the jewel._' Kaito thought with an inward grin as he moved to join the small gathering of officers in front of Nakamori.

"Sir! The power has been cut from the all surrounding buildings in a one block radius, it's not just the museum that has been effected." An officer near the front saluted nervously.

"What could the Kid be thinking? This isn't like his usual style at all..." 

Kaito recognized the voice of the speaker. It was a young man that possessed exceptionally sharp eyes and wits, enabling him to see through a couple of the Kid's disguises. Unfortunately for the kid, he was became the occupant of the desk in front of Inspector Nakamori's office when he proved to be a very useful member of the Task Force. 

'_Not bad._' Kaito thought to himself. '_Someone figured out that this isn't my doing._'

Another voice spoke up, one that Kaito didn't recognize. "But who else would have a reason to shut down the power on this block at exactly eleven pm?"

"Good question," Nakamori said. "When we get find the Kid, I'll get him to tell us what he thinks he's doing."

'_Ha. Like you could keep me around long enough to interrogate._' Kaito smirked. 

"Now listen up and don't even think of talking back to me about this." Nakamori barked at the men. "You two there are going to take your teams to join the others at the new wing and find out what the hell is going on. I'll stay here with the teams from outside our jurisdiction just in case the Kaitou Kid decides to come in through the front door. Everyone else, return to your posts and keep an eye out for anything unusual, Kid related or not. Dismissed!"

"Yes sir!"

The officers that Nakamori singled out turned to their men and raised their voices to issue some further instructions that Kaito only half listened. Some teams were heading to a section that he wasn't going to be anywhere near if possible while others were heading to new positions to wait for the Kid's arrival. Briefly, the hall was filled with chaos as teams tried to sort themselves out and leave through the right doors. 

Kaito reached up and pulled the cap low over his eyes and ducked his head down to conceal the Kaitou Kid's dark smirk.

'_Unfortunately, I've already finished tonight's performance and must take my leave._' He bowed mentally in Nakamori's direction. '_Thank you for being such a wonderfully oblivious audience, until next time, Nakamori-kun._'

An exceptionally young officer waited for the patrols to sort themselves out before sneaking into the room to join one of the teams on loan from another district. He easily blended in with the nervous officers milling around at the rear of the group as they waited for further instructions from Nakamori. Kaito took this chance to examine the room and was not surprised to see that it was the usual organized chaos of a Kaitou Kid hunt headed by Nakamori. Everyone seemed to have a good idea of where they should be and what they should be doing but milled around uncertainly, as if they weren't sure if it was safe to stay in one place too long. Really, it was as if they thought that the Kaitou Kid was a monster that operated against common sense; people would get be the target of a prank if they stayed still too long. 

'_Well, sure, there's quite a bit of truth in that belief... but still! It's as if they're afraid of me!_' Kaito grinned like a shark. '_Which they _should _be._'

Nakamori was suffering greatly from the loss of the British detective's strategies and, although he would loathe to admit that fact to any that could leak the information to Hakuba, was trying to make up for the lack of a Kaitou Kid level strategy with numbers. If the police were up against a lesser thief then that probably would have worked in their favour but they were being challenged by the infamous Criminal 1412. Kaito had no doubt that Nakamori could have stopped any thief that didn't operate on an international level. After all, Nakamori was trained to react faster and smarter by an international criminal like the Kid.

"Listen up!" Nakamori shouted, "as you know, the Kid hasn't shown up yet so that means one of two things." He paused for the full attention of the remaining officers to be focused on him. "One, we could have misunderstood the riddle left by the Kid and have been guarding the wrong gem..."

It took all of Kaito's willpower to keep himself from laughing.

"Or, two, the Kaitou Kid snatched the gem when the lights went out and this thing..." Nakamori made a dismissive gesture over his shoulder in the general direction of the display case. "Is a fake. Frankly, I don't care if we're wrong and the gem is gone or if the Kid's just really late. For something as major as the block-wide power outage, the Kid would definitely mention something about it in the notice and there was nothing there." 

The man paused with a troubled look on his face. "The Kid had a lot of enemies and if some of them are here, then we're going to stop them. But it's not just because it's the right thing to do but because catching the Kid is _our_ responsibility."

The phantom thief stared at the gruff man in slack-jawed shock. 

It was true that Kaito was pleasantly surprised that the Inspector proved that he was consistently able to unravel enough of the Kid's riddles to know where, when, and although his assumptions were usually incorrect, how the Kid was going to steal that night's target. However, that wasn't what caused Kaito to forget about maintaining his mask (and it was at this point that Kaito belatedly remembered to resume his impassive expression). What shocked him was that Nakamori understood the Kid's style, _Kaito's_ style, well enough to know that something wasn't right.

Kaito felt absurdly touched that Aoko's dad, who was not on the great teen detectives' level by any stretch of imagination, wanted to keep the Kaitou Kid safe in his own way. It was possible that the Inspector knew that the Kid he chased throughout his youth was gone and knew that the current Kid was someone else. Maybe he wanted to keep the Kid safe because of some sense of responsibility to stop outsider that didn't understand the rules of the game from interfering. Maybe he just wanted to keep the illusion of the laughing thief in white from disappearing like it did over eight years ago.

The second Kaitou Kid shook his head firmly. '_I should expect something like that from Aoko's dad. He's devoted the most time studying and trying to understand us._'

Still, Kaito was relieved to know that someone as wonderfully average in intelligence as the Inspector would be able to understand some of the Kid's ways. Normal people could begin see that there were reasons for the Kid's actions and he didn't just strike randomly. Maybe, if normal people couldn't fully understand Kaito and the Kid, then soon, one of the detectives would finally figure see that the Kaitou Kid was motivated by reasons greater than to seek the thrill of a good chase. 

'_It'd be nice to have an ally outside of the world of Phantom Thieves._' Kaito thought with a wistful smile.

Kaito's smile froze as he felt the hairs rise on the back of his neck. A cold prickling sense of dread crept up the thief's spine as his whole body tensed reflexively. He jolted from his thoughts to full awareness and cursed himself for losing focus on a heist again. If there was something that Kaito absolutely trusted, it was his instincts. His instincts said that someone hostile was looking at him.

By then, the police had managed to set up several portable generators to illuminate the main room and Kaito decided to take advantage of this. The thief casually turned his head from side to side as if he needed to stretch out the muscles in his neck after listening to Nakamori's speech. Dark blue eyes darted over the reflections of the room in the glass that protected many of the art pieces in the hall. His mind had already summoned the floor plan and images of the room when he first entered the museum to compare them to the sight in the glass. He knew he had to find what was out of place.

There.

In the glass of a display case containing replicas of ancient manuscripts, there was the reflection of a statue on the balcony of the second floor whose shape did not match with his memory. The statue there was of a female figure while the silhouette was of figure with wider shoulders and a longer torso, male in other words. 

A glimmer of light.

Metal. 

The silhouette moved.

Kaito's hand flickered into his pocket and threw down a set of four grey orbs that exploded into billowing clouds of multi-coloured smoke upon contact. The assembled group was concealed in smoke. He could hear the coughs of the assembled officers before they were promptly ordered from the room by Nakamori's voice. 

'_It's them._' Kaito thought frantically. '_Dad's killers must've come to stop me, permanently. Damn it, I must be getting close... or they _think_ I'm getting close. Either way, there are too many people here. I can't let them get hurt, so that means I've got to lure them away._'

Kaito spared the police no further attention as he stripped away the policeman's disguise in favour of his white suit. 

His mind blurred thorough distance and angle calculations as he reached inside the vest of his suit jacket to extract the card gun. Kaito knew that it wouldn't hold up against a real gun but if he could knock the gun from that guy's hands then the chances of everyone else escaping without injury would be very much in his favour. He aimed his gun and fired his card gun at the silhouette's previous position in one motion before rolling from the smoke cover. 

The modified cards quivered in the wall around the statue. The Kaitou Kid's gun was aimed at the balcony but the guy already moved. He was somewhere else in the room.

Instincts honed from the experience screamed at Kaito to move and his body unquestionably obeyed, long before the mind was able to complete the order. Kaito was shown once again that he was not mistaken when he decided to place absolute trust in his intuition and the survival skills taught by his father. He moved just in time. 

Fragments of tile exploded into a shower of ceramic shrapnel, angling away from the shattered impact hole by Kaito's feet. It had to be a silencer. He hurled forwards into a somersault as another tile was reduced to shards. The room was silent except for the sound of the Kaitou Kid's movements, the bullets striking the room around him, and the steady whispered warning of wind as it blasted from the chamber of the gun.

Kaito knew the position of the gunman angle from the angle of the bullets as they struck the ground with enough force to spray tile fragments into the air but couldn't afford to stop moving long enough to get off a good shot. He had to wait for the guy to reload so the Kid desperately kept moving to avoid the shots. 

The hall was too open, there were no columns to hide behind and he couldn't run from the room if the gunman was going to follow. No, he knew he had to stay in the room and hope for a good shot. The hall was too open, with the exception of the glass-covered displays of art pieces that Kaito couldn't bring himself to use as a shield. This wasn't because Kaito thought he didn't need the protection or felt that he was invincible but rather, it was because he doubted that whoever was shooting at him would respect the historical significance of the objects the Kaitou Kid was using as a shield.

There was a pause, followed by the sound of a clip being ejected.

Kaito steadied his arm and fired, twice, into the darkness of the balcony above. 

There was the sound of something hitting flesh. 

He held his breath, muscles tensed for flight if he detected the slightest hint of movement, but it remained silent. Distantly, past the pounding of his heart, Kaito noticed that there were police officers still in the room as they began to collect themselves and move. Nakamori's voice could be heard as the man began imposing order on the remaining officers. He called for a team to immediately head to the second floor to find the shooter and being him to the Inspector so he could extract some answers from the intruder's hide.

Kaito's arm slowly dropped to his side and released a breath he didn't know he was holding. 

"You! What is the meaning of all this?" Nakamori hollered. 

"My apologies for the tardiness, Nakamori-kun." He turned to greet the glowering face of Inspector Nakamori with the Kid's trademark grin. '_The less they know, the better._'

The Kid's attention was occupied with distracting the Inspector from the situation that had just passed. A few well placed barbs in the conversation and Nakamori was fuming mad and convinced that the thief in white had been executing an elaborate and very successful attempt to terrorize the police. 

However, Kaito forgot that he still 'on stage' and paid for his distraction. 

The boy's jerked backwards violently. Deep blossoms of red flowered and spread quickly on the white plains of the Kaitou Kid's suit. Shaking gloved fingers brushed the tear in his shoulder, and came away with sticky with blood. Dark blue eyes focused on the crimson staining his hands with confusion. A strangled cry that he wasn't quite able to choke back escaped from the Kaitou Kid's throat as he crumpled to his knees. 

Pain. 

Pain, white and blinding, threatened to flood his senses. Overwhelming. It hurt to move, but he had to move. Agony. 

But it couldn't show on his face. That thought pulled Kaito's consciousness away from the pain as he remembered all the lessons he was given as a child. His posture straightened. 

'_Nothing to see here, move along now. Don't worry, it's all part of the act._'

He tried to smile but the agony pulsing though his body was stronger than his willpower and all he could manage was a grimace. Pain stabbed though his shoulder with a ragged blade with every heartbeat as Kaito felt his hands grow colder. There as nothing more he wanted to do than to stop moving and rest but knew that it was too dangerous to stop. 

More tile was falling and Kaito stared at the hole in the ground with a bewildered expression before realizing that he didn't manage to hit the gunman. He stumbled and attempted to regain his balance but, instead, had his legs buckle beneath him. Kaito desperately threw out his arms to steady himself, but failed.

'_There can't be casualties on a Kid heist, damn it!' _

Darkness was gathering around his vision and around his mind. Kaito grit his teeth and tried to ignore his body's demands for rest since he knew what would happen if he stopped. There wasn't much that he could do now, his limbs felt almost too heavy to move, but if there were going to be casualties then Kaito was determined to do everything in his power to keep it at one.

Kaito lurched to his feet and staggered backwards another tile shattered at his feet. The noise was deafening. Shockwaves as sharp as the broken tile drove mercilessly into his body, hammering his brain with the reverberations. It was too much. Too much noise. It weakened his resolve and the deadening pain returned. He wanted to run from it.

'_N...no.' _He shook his headand was instantly attacked by vertigo but refused to fall. '_I can't run, not yet. Dad... dad's killers are still.... here._'

A powerful arm wrapped itself around the thief's shoulders from behind to trap the smaller boy in place. The thief was standing, but not on his own power. For a second, Kaito was he overcome with panic and he summoned all of his fading strength, braced an arm against the person to push away, but was unable to free himself. He was only pulled closer as the other person's grip tightened. 

Cold and unyielding metal dug into Kaito's back. 

Kaito renewed his efforts to escape and jammed his elbow into his assailant's ribs while pulling to the arm around his shoulders enough to slip free. His efforts were rewarded with a grunt of pain and a loosened arm around his shoulders. But Kaito was already exhausted and there was only so much power that could be summoned willpower alone. 

The thief fell, but his descent was halted. 

Kaito was hauled back to his feet and had the arm tighten around him with a grunt of annoyance. The thief hissed in pain as the other man's arm pressed to close to his wounded shoulder and fully expected to feel the gun digging into the injury but instead, his weight was shifted as the man adjusted his grip. 

"Still getting involved in things you can't handle, I see." A smug tenor voice murmured into the thief's ear. "I can't say that I'm surprised."

Kaito froze. He struggled to catch a glimpse of the other man's face but instead caught the glint of a gun from the corner of his eyes. 

"Do anything stupid and I'll make sure you'll regret it." The man growled.

Kaito desperately tried to get his voice to work. He need to know who that guy was. But if it was who he suspected, it would only further complicate things and Kaito couldn't stay awake long enough to ask all the question he needed to. He tried to twist around to get a look at the man's face but all Kaito could see a smirk directed at him. It was as if the guy knew Kaito confused and wanted answers but found watching Kaito's feeble efforts at speech amusing. The man refused to explain anything and raised his gun silently to take aim. 

There was only one thought in Kaito's mind before the darkness claimed him.

'_I know you._'


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N:** This is why it takes me forever to finish MK/DC stories. Not only am I the most easily distracted writer there ever was, but I can easily spend hours researching random throw-away details. I spent a couple hours searching Detective Conan and Magic Kaito for all mentions and appearances of Hakuba just to figure out if he is right or left handed. Answer: probably right handed. He used that hand to hold a gun, a tea cup, his pocket watch (most of the time), and grip a pool cue (for a trick shot) in DC. He used his left to hold his cell, hand-cuff the Kid, and write in his notebook in MC… but the raws were probably taken from a horizontally flipped version (Kid's monocle is on the wrong eye).

Also I thought about being mean and waiting until Christmas to upload this, but decided not to.

* * *

**Face in the Photograph****  
**Chapter 3

Kaito came back to consciousness with an inarticulate scream. His right ear rang from the discharge of a gun that had to be more powerful than what most Japanese policemen had access to. As if proving this, the man holding Kaito upright fired a series of shots at the second floor balcony that caused his body to jolt from the recoil. This time Kaito grit his teeth and managed to choke down a cry of pain when his shoulder was jarred.

There was a loud clatter from the second floor that was followed by the shouting voices of the police and more gunshots. Nakamori's voice rose above the noise, barking orders with authority.

"You get him out of here!" Nakamori shouted at the person holding the Kid upright.

Kaito wondered if it was worth making a run for it or if it was too late to pretend he was still unconscious and hope that his saviour was in a charitable mood. He tensed reflexively when Aoko's father pointed at the Kaitou Kid and snarled and shook his finger as if scolding a disobedient child.

"And you! Stop getting shot!" Nakamori snapped.

"That's not entirely my decision." Kaito stammered and immediately regretted opening his mouth.

Nakamori fixed the Kaitou Kid with a glare that had Kaito reaching up to make sure the hat and monocle was still on. He disguised the move by tugging the hat's brim down to conceal his face. It was clear that the inspector had quite a few choice words for the Kid and was itching to air his grievances if only there were not more pressing concerns to deal with first. Aoko's dad growled and turned away to address the remaining officers but it was clear that the Kaitou Kid would get an earful at the first opportunity.

Kaito wondered how much angrier Inspector Nakamori would get if the Kid accidentally forgot to warn him of the next couple heists...

Nakamori turned away from the milling officers. "Get going, Hakuba! There's no guarantee that the shooter was alone."

Hakuba Saguru pulled Kaito's uninjured arm over his shoulder and led him toward the nearest door. "Quickly now. You can pass out later."

Kaito decided to keep quiet instead of distracting the detective from his very important task of keeping the Kaitou Kid alive and helping him escape. It was strange enough to discover that Nakamori was just as interested in keeping the Kaitou Kid alive as he was interested in capturing him once and for all, but that was not too surprising now that Kaito had time to think about it. Nakamori Ginzo had been a friend of the Kuroba family for a long time and had been chasing the Kaitou Kid for nearly as long. It wasn't that surprising that Nakamori would develop a territorial fondness for the phantom thief over the years but Hakuba had no such excuse.

What did he stand to gain by going along with Nakamori and not arresting the Kaitou Kid the moment they were out of harm's way? Kaito didn't flatter himself by thinking that Hakuba had come to think of him as anything like a friend - something like a benign criminal tumour, maybe, but certainly not a friend. It said something about their closeness when Hakuba had exchanged more words with the Kaitou Kid than he did with Kuroba Kaito. Of course, there was the small matter that Hakuba was convinced that they were one and the same person but that was beside the point.

Hakuba held an impressive looking gun in his right hand and his eyes were narrowed with a grim, intense focus that kept Kaito silent. Kaito didn't know enough about firearms to know which one it was but he could tell that it wasn't one that the average policeman should have access to. He was certain that Hakuba's possession of a gun of that calibre at his age was all nice and legal, somehow, but it didn't stop Kaito from wondering just how Hakuba managed to get that (and his hawk) past customs.

It was several painfully slow and silent minutes later before they reached a disused door that groaned loudly when Hakuba pushed it open with his shoulder. Kaito absently recalled the building plans through the haze of pain that was settling over his mind now that the adrenaline was fading away. This part of the building had originally been for used for storage of artefacts that were not part of active exhibits and the double doors were included to make deliveries easier but the Kaitou Kid's return to active status had prompted the museum to change their plans. A section in the deepest of the museum was converted to storage of artefacts and these rooms were left to gather dust.

"We are almost there. Do not lose consciousness now." Hakuba said.

Kaito blinked and took a deep breath of the crisp night air and coughed weakly when the motion pulled at his wound. At this rate Kaito would have to stop going to the pool unless he could come up with a good reason why he was covered with wounds that no normal person would have. They walked toward a parked car that looked so expensive that Kaito was already wondering about the compensation that Hakuba would demand after Kaito bled all over the nice leather seats.

"For the record," Kaito said, "I am not going to pay for new seats if you put me in your car and I ruin the leather."

Hakuba snorted. "It might be important to get you to safety but I am not about to take you anywhere without having that wound tended to first."

Kaito tensed and jerked away. Or, at least he would have if Hakuba had not anticipated his reaction and tightened his grip on the Kaitou Kid. Hakuba snapped "Stop that!" but only succeeded in startling Kaito, who tried to escape again but only succeeded in causing more blood to stain the white suit. The blond growled and brought up his other hand to stop the thief from moving too much but he forgot about the gun.

Kaito stared at Hakuba with the wild eyes of a cornered animal and pulled back as far as he could. Hakuba sighed and made a big show of putting the gun's safety back on. The blond even went as far as awkwardly putting it away in the shoulder holster underneath his jacket even though he knew the shooter was not alone and that it was foolish to leave them defenceless in this situation.

"How far do you think you can get with that shoulder?" Hakuba said when it became clear that disarming himself was not going to be enough to calm the Kid down. "The glider is out of the question and you will not be able to take public transport even if you had a disguise."

"I appreciate your concern but I will manage, Detective."

The Kaitou Kid replied as he straightened and pulled away. It was obvious that Hakuba was letting him stand on his own but Kaito chose to ignore that in favour of standing as if the left side of his body was not stained red and screaming in pain. Hakuba did not look the least bit convinced by the act and remarked on the paleness of the Kaitou Kid's face and the cold sweat that that broken out.

Kaito pressed his lips into a line and let the comment pass without comment.

"Look, I know you have no reason to take me at my word but what other options do you have?"

Hakuba stuck a hand in his pocket and Kaito knew he was gripping his prized pocket watch in his hand. It was one of the small habits that Hakuba only ever seemed to indulge in when he was near the Kaitou Kid. Kaito had stumbled across news footage of Hakuba making a rare appearance at something not related to phantom thieves (the English detective was clearly leading the investigation even though he was not officially supposed to be there) and was surprised to see the difference between the Hakuba he knew and the one on the foreign news. There were many things about the detective that did not change no matter where he went (smugness was one and an obsession with time was another) but there were just enough inconsequential little nagging things that made it clear that their "Saguru Hakuba" was not the same as his "Hakuba Saguru".

Strangely, the sight was enough to convince the Kaitou Kid to recede to the background and leave Kuroba Kaito in control. Good, Kaito thought when he saw Hakuba reach for the comfort of the pocket watch only to jerk his hand away guiltily at the last moment. Now Kaito knew he was dealing with the Hakuba that would call from France to give a thief helpful if cryptic advice and not the Hakuba that could arrest criminals and walk away without looking back once he satisfied his curiosity.

"What do you suggest then?" Kaito ventured. "There wouldn't be ambulances hanging around a Kid heist and there is no way I'll let a police officer anywhere near my blood."

Hakuba stared at Kaito with wide eyes before he recovered his composure.

"I know someone trustworthy who can look after that shoulder," Hakuba said. He did not comment that enough blood had transferred from the Kid's white suit to Hakuba's own that he wouldn't need to use trickery if he wanted to get something to run a DNA test on. He was about to give voice to his thoughts but silenced himself by realizing that an argument was, while tempting and entertaining under most circumstances, not something to be indulged in when there were gunmen in black aiming for them.

"It had better not be some kind of mafia doctor. Or you." Kaito grunted. Hakuba was quiet long enough that Kaito began to wonder. "H- Hey, I was only joking. You seriously don't have an underground doctor on call, do you?" He laughed nervously. "Of course you wouldn't. You're a respectable detective and that's not the kind of thing you do. Wait, what was that noise."

Hakuba pressed a button on his cell phone before closing it with a snap. Blearily, Kaito wondered when Hakuba had the time to pull out his cell and type out a text without the Kid noticing something. Unless he really did know an underground doctor and had a reason to set the number on speed dial so he only had to press one button to get the good doctor to show up…

"I can hear you worrying about nothing of consequence from here." Hakuba said as they reached the parked car. He leaned Kaito against the side as he fished in his pockets for his keys. "I won't tell you not to be concerned since you are injured and not thinking straight but please humour me, Kuroba. You have nothing to fear from me."

"Why are you being so helpful?" Kaito blurted out and immediately cursed himself. That was not the sort of voice that the Kaitou Kid would use but the pain was making it hard to remember who he was supposed to be.

"Does it matter?" Hakuba said.

At least Kaito still had the jewel from tonight's heist but under the circumstances it would have been better if Kaito had lost it sometime during the shoot out since he could always go back and check the gem later. He could feel the weight of the night's prize in his pocket and thankfully it was not on the side that was pressed against the detective's side. Things were starting to get fuzzy at the edges and Kaito knew that was a very bad sign.

Hakuba glanced around the dark side street and, grimacing, came to a decision. He unlocked the door on Kaito's side and the thief gratefully sank down on the edge of the seat without prompting. Conscious of the blood he was losing and the detective's fussiness, Kaito was careful to lean forward so the blood on the back of his jacket would not drip on the very expensive looking leather seats. Of course the seats were leather. In the meantime, Hakuba had unlocked the trunk of his car to pull out a small emergency first aid kit before returning to the thief's side.

Kaito watched Hakuba closely through narrowed eyes. If he wasn't confused earlier about what Hakuba stood to gain from helping the Kaitou Kid out of a harm's way then he was certainly at a loss now. He knew that Hakuba understood the unspoken rules that guided the Kaitou Kid's work and that could explain why Hakuba helped the Kaitou Kid escape but this was going far beyond the truce outlined in the unspoken agreement. The scrutiny did not go unnoticed and in response, Hakuba rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath in English.

"Let me see that shoulder." Hakuba said out loud, in Japanese. "I will try to stop the bleeding but there is only so much I can do here. You need to have that looked at by a professional."

Hakuba didn't wait for a response before reaching for the Kaito's shoulder and everything momentarily went black.

When Kaito regained his senses, the ruined white suit and blue shirt had been peeled away and Hakuba was dressing the wound with a clinical detachment that would make any doctor proud. Kaito knew that anyone hoping to become a police officer had to get used to looking at gruesome wounds but it was still a little depressing to discover that Hakuba was more like the Great Teen Detectives of the East and West than he let on. Kaito would never, ever, admit it out loud but there was a part of him hoping that Hakuba's focus on phantom thieves and thieves in general would lead him away from murders and into a relatively safe area of law enforcement. There were some phantom thieves that were far less scrupulous than he, but there was still a significantly lower body count associated with the work of phantom thieves.

It was too much to hope that extending a few invitations to the shrunken detective and his hot blooded friend would be enough to tempt them away from the gruesome path they had chosen but, wait; did he not somehow manage to convince Hakuba to switch his focus to thieves? Who knew, maybe with enough time and persistence he could pull it off a second or third time. It already looked like he had Kudo's interest so maybe it wasn't impossible. On the other hand, the Kaitou Kid would not endear himself with the international phantom thief community if he brought not only one but three young genius detectives into their midst and he couldn't rely on only Jii's aid forever…

Fingers snapped in front of his face and Kaito jerked his head up in surprise.

"Pay attention." Hakuba said sternly. "I've done the best I can to stop the bleeding but you need to see a professional. Unfortunately, taking the Kaitou Kid to a hospital is out of the question and you can't risk taking off that costume yet." Hakuba stood and dusted off the knees of his slacks. "I suppose that leaves me no option but to take you home for now… -oh calm down, I meant my home and not yours."

Kaito gingerly touched the gauze taped over the wound on shoulder. "Why are you doing this?" He looked into Hakuba's brown eyes and was surprised to see a smile on the detective's face that he couldn't read.

"If you are so curious, why don't you figure it out?" Hakuba closed the door and walked around to the driver's side of the car but stopped to do a quick check of the car's engine and underside before climbing in and turning the ignition.

If Kaito had any doubts about how expensive Hakuba's car was then the sound of the engine was proof enough that he really shouldn't be leaning back into the leather seat even though it was surprisingly comfortable. He tried to lean forward but Hakuba stopped him by reaching across to buckle him in and then, after a moment of thought, yanked on the seatbelt so the emergency lock engaged. Kaito turned as much as he could manage in the pitiful amount of slack that Hakuba left and glared at him. The blond smirked and gave a careless little shrug.

"Would you prefer that I cuff your hands to something?" Hakuba said, "Because I could."

"This isn't going to hold me, detective." Kaito said.

"No, it wouldn't under normal circumstances." Hakuba agreed. "If you were really intent on escaping then you would have made your move by now. But please go ahead and pretend that you're accepting my aid against your will if it makes you feel better. The offer to put you in cuffs stands."

Hakuba backed the car out of the alley and proceeded to the main road. Kaito was just starting to wonder how the detective was planning to make it though the roadblock with the Kaitou Kid in the passenger seat when he saw the officers on duty take one look at the car and waved it through without stopping to check. Kaito blinked.

"Shouldn't they be more cautious at a Kid heist?" Kaito asked slowly.

"My car is quite distinctive but these officers are not part of Inspector Nakamori's team so he has little influence over them." Hakuba said. "I have even less say in the matter."

Kaito hummed and fell silent. That would explain why it was so easy for Kaito to escape from a heist once he made it past the perimeter guards that were part of the Kaitou Kid task force. Aoko's dad must have found it infuriating to know there was a gaping hole in the defence net but have no power to change the other officers' minds. He had too much integrity to strike deals and there was also the little matter of Nakamori Ginzo's territorial claim that the thief in white was his team's responsibility and nobody else's…

"Stay awake." Hakuba barked when his passenger had been quiet for too long.

"I am." Kaito answered sullenly.

"Now stay that way." Hakuba said.

Kaito forced himself to wake up fully. It wasn't safe to discard the Kaitou's mask yet. There was something Hakuba said earlier that was nagging but the painkillers Hakuba forced him to swallow made it hard to think straight. He stared at Hakuba's profile and wondered why Hakuba looked so tense when he wasn't the one being shot at. All Hakuba needed to do to get out of harm's way was let Kaito out of the car and to stop accepting the Kaitou Kid's invitations. The prodigy from the famous overseas Hakuba family already proved that he had quite a career ahead of him in Europe so there was little reason for him to keep coming back to Japan for the strangest cases.

Hakuba's eyes flickered in Kaito's direction a few times and Kaito couldn't resist smirking once he caught the detective's gaze. Hakuba's hands tightened on the steering wheel and his eyes returned resolutely to the road. To his credit, he didn't crack under the silent scrutiny until they pulled into the driveway of the Hakuba family's home and the engine was switched off. Hakuba took a deep breath and turned to pin the thief with a glare.

"What?" Hakuba snapped.

Kaito drew upon all his experience with maintaining a poker face to keep from laughing when he gave Hakuba his best impression of a disoriented and barely conscious stare. Hakuba cursed in English and visibly, reluctantly, pushed his ire aside to deal with the "emergency". Kaito was actually feeling much better (or at least, as best as he could with a hole in his shoulder) and was fully capable of walking home under his own power now, but he was curious if this confusing new Hakuba would go as far as to carry his rival inside if Kaito kept up the concussed act long enough.

The driver side door slammed shut and a couple seconds later, Kaito had his answer and it was "yes, he would". Kaito went limp and unresponsive when Hakuba picked him up and awkwardly made his way inside. Hakuba didn't do it without a word of complaint, though, since the blond muttered uncomplimentary things in several languages all the way inside. Kaito couldn't figure out what Hakuba was saying since he kept switching languages in the middle of sentences but, wow, Hakuba knew a lot of languages.

Hakuba dumped Kaito unceremoniously on the couch and crossed his arms.

"You aren't concussed," he said. It wasn't a question.

"Nope!" Kaito's eyes popped open and he grinned widely at the detective. "No head injuries here but my arm does hurt."

Hakuba pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "I should have left you in that alley if I had any sense."

"So why didn't you?" Kaito sat up and put the white top hat back on. At least that could be salvaged even though the rest of his suit was a total loss. He made a mental note to make a trip to the fabric store soon.

"That is something I am wondering about myself." Hakuba sighed wearily and stared up at the ceiling. "No, that's not true. I know why."

"Yeah?" Kaito prompted.

Hakuba shook his head. "Your shoulder needs to be looked at first. Answers can come later if you are still interested in hearing what I have to say."

"After saying it like that, of course I'd want to know!" Kaito protested.

Hakuba smiled tiredly. "Good. Now stay put while I make sure the good doctor got my message. In the meantime, I will make us something to drink since we are both in need of something to steady our nerves."

Kaito sat on Hakuba's couch and cast his mind back over the events earlier in the evening as he idly studied the room. He jumped. "Wait, wait wait!" Kaito climbed to his feet with a groan and hurried through the door that Hakuba disappeared through. He paused awkwardly when he found himself standing the doorway to the kitchen, watching Hakuba prepare tea.

"What is it?" Hakuba sounded distracted but it was clear from his body language that Hakuba was actually paying very close attention to the other person in the room.

"You don't seriously have a mafia doctor on-call, do you? Are you really Hakuba Saguru, the Holmes obsessed detective?" Kaito ignored the snort of amusement from Hakuba when he remembered something else the detective let slip earlier. "And need I remind you again that I am not Kuroba Kaito?"

Hakuba put the lid back on a tin of tea leaves and turned around. Kaito was taken aback slightly by the serious expression on Hakuba's face but kept his surprise from making it to his face. Kaito did not cross his arms or react visibly when Hakuba took a step away from the counter. He stopped just out of arm's reach.

"First of all, the mafia are Italian and this doctor is Japanese. Secondly, Sherlock Holmes is a masterpiece and there is no shame in being a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writing."

Kaito snickered.

"Shut it." Hakuba snapped. "And finally, stop taking me for a fool. I have known your identify for a very long time now and the only reason I haven't done anything is because I lack indisputable concrete proof."

"If you have no proof then how can you know who I am?" Kaito was proud that none of his nerves showed. Of all the great detectives he regularly invited to the Kaitou Kid's performances, Hakuba Saguru was the one closest to the truth. He did have a distinct advantage over the other detectives since Hakuba was the only one who also knew Kuroba Kaito but, fortunately, Hakuba was also the most stubborn about following the unwritten rules of their game to the proverbial letter.

Hakuba stared at him with sharp brown eyes. "Are you sure you want me to answer that, Kaito?"

Despite his reservations, Kaito found himself nodding. He was getting tired of guessing what Hakuba was leaving unsaid all night.

"You are aware that I keep track of the personal data of all the suspects I encounter, do you not?"

"Yeah, so?" Kaito wondered if Hakuba was stalling.

"With all my experience with the Kaitou Kid and other phantom thieves, it has become quite simple for me to tell when somebody is not who they appear. I do have their data on recorded both on paper and up here." Hakuba tapped the side of his head.

"Just come out and say it, detective." Kaito said impatiently. "Who am I?"

Hakuba straightened to his full height. "You are Kuroba Kaito, the second Kaitou Kid. You are the son of Kuroba Toichi, a magician and the first Kaitou Kid, who died shortly after he ran afoul of a criminal syndicate with a fixation on objects with supposedly mystical properties."

"Don't give me that!" Kaito snapped. "You're no older than me! How could you have met Dad? He was murdered when I was still a kid! There's no way you could know him!"

"It's true that I was not well acquainted with your father, but I did know him." Hakuba folded his hands behind his back. "And thank you for confirming my suspicions."

Kaito cursed and reached for his card gun. Hakuba made no move to reach for his own gun and stared down the barrel of Kaito's gun with an unreadable expression. Kaito's hand shook. Hakuba continued to stand with his hands folded behind his back and stared into Kaito's wild, panicked blue eyes. Kaito's eyes dropped and the brief lapse in attention was all Hakuba needed. He snatched the card gun away with one hand as flung it behind him as he grabbed Kaito's uninjured left arm and twisted it behind him. Kaito cried out as Hakuba pressed him against the kitchen wall and leaned against his back so he had no room to manoeuvre for anything in the suit's hidden pockets. Kaito's injured arm was wedged between his body and the wall and was screaming in pain.

The card gun thumped loudly against the cupboards before falling to the floor with clatter. The only other sound in the kitchen was the bubbling water from the kettle and their harsh breathing.

"I apologize for being so rough with an injured man but I hope you understand my need for immediate action." Hakuba said.

Kaito grunted. "The card gun is not lethal, you moron."

Hakuba was silent for a moment before answering, "If aimed in the right place it could be."

"Come on! There are no casualties on at a Kaitou Kid's performance and, in case you haven't noticed… I'm still dressed as the Kid!" Kaito's voice rose to a shout by the end.

Hakuba was saved from thinking of an answer when his cell phone began to ring. He released Kaito with a mumble that might have been an apology and pulled the phone from his pocket. Hakuba walked across the room and retrieved the card gun and stuck it on one of his jacket pockets.

"Saguru here," He said. "Okay. No, it's not me. Yes. Yes, I understand." He nodded a couple times. "I'll unlock the gate now. Thank you." Hakuba closed the phone with a snap and tucked it away. "The doctor is here to see to your wounds."

Kaito rubbed his shoulder pointedly and looked at the blood seeping into the gauze. "Good timing."

Hakuba cleared his throat and looked slightly embarrassed. "Yes. Well, come along now. I cannot reveal the doctor's name but I have sought out his services a few times myself so I can assure you that he is a trustworthy person. He is very discreet."

"Uh huh." Kaito frowned but wondered when and why Hakuba would need the services of a very discreet doctor that had to keep his name a secret.

Hakuba handed the card gun back to Kaito. "I promised that I would explain myself, so I will."

Kaito looked down at the gun and then back up at Hakuba with the Kid's focused stare. Hakuba had the grace to look ashamed of his overreaction and the detective had gone out of his way to save the Kid's life and, more importantly, seemed to know something about Kuroba Toichi and his murder so there was little option but to cooperate. Truth be told, Kaito wasn't that mad at Hakuba and just wanted him to sweat it out for a few minutes. It was most likely deeply ingrained police training behind Hakuba's response since Kaito knew from personal experience with Aoko's dad that it was a bad idea to surprise an officer with something that looked like a gun.

"You had better not leave anything out." Kaito said flatly and took the card gun back.

Hakuba released the breath he was holding and nodded. "I will tell you all you wish to know. I give you my word."

"Good." Kaito nodded and waved his uninjured arm toward the front door. "Now let's see this back-street quack of yours."

-tbc-


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: **So, chapters 0-2 were written during a 2-3 week period in Feb. 2004, chapter 4 was written in Dec. 2009, and this chapter was written this week in Mar. 2011. I wonder how long it will take for chapter 5… another year, perhaps? I kid, I kid! I'm using a new writing program that makes tracking details for novel-length stories a hundred times easier than my old method of many Word Docs and post-it notes. In fact, I have everything up to chapter 15 planned. I just need to type it all up, I swear.

* * *

**Face in the Photograph****  
**Chapter 4

Kaito leaned his good shoulder against the kitchen doorway and quietly watched Hakuba walk down the hallway to greet the doctor and wondered what he should do now. Reason said that Kaito should remain in Hakuba's care for at least as long as it took for his wound to be treated, but self-preservation and a healthy scepticism of the trustworthiness of detectives said that Kaito should be taking this chance to flee. There was a good chance that Hakuba would take the opportunity to have the doctor administer an unnecessarily powerful sedative. It wouldn't be the first time the English detective had resorted to trickery to stop the Kid.

On the other hand, Hakuba had been far less predictable after he began to spend more time in Europe than he spent in Japan. Kaito could say with a fair degree of certainty that the Hakuba Saguru who immigrated to Japan just to chase the Kaitou Kid would be someone worth risking greater injury to escape from. That Hakuba would not hesitate to incapacitate the Kaitou Kid after satisfying his curiosity. However, the Hakuba who returned to Japan after enjoying a luxurious week-long vacation in Paris was more difficult to understand. This new Hakuba Saguru had given his rival valuable information about Chat Noir and was even willing to throw away a chance to gather the evidence necessary to prove his hypothesis that Kuroba Kaito was the Kaitou Kid beyond a shadow of a doubt.

"Thank you for responding so promptly," Hakuba said as he ushered the doctor inside.

"It was a nasty shock to see your number displayed at this hour," The doctor said gruffly. "I here I am, thinking you've finally developed a sense of your own mortality. Are you about to prove me wrong?"

"There is no need to exaggerate," Hakuba protested indignantly. His eyes darted over to meet Kaito's before sliding away. "Many officers have found themselves in similar situations. I was merely exposed to those dangers at a slightly younger age than is common."

"I believe the word you're looking for is 'appropriate', not 'common'," The doctor replied tartly.

Hakuba shrugged with feigned casualness. "My father would have stopped me if it I was in any real danger. In any case, you're not here to share stories about my youth but to treat a patient."

Kaito tugged on the brim of the Kaitou Kid's hat to cast his face into further shadow when Hakuba and the doctor turned away from the door. Kaito considered retreating to the kitchen and searching his pockets to see if any extra disguise masks remained intact but quickly discarded the idea. It would take too much time to apply the disguise with one injured and one relatively uninjured arm. Kaito's good shoulder was still sore from the force Hakuba applied to subdue the minor threat the Kid's card gun posed. It would be at least a couple more minutes before those muscles stopped complaining and his other shoulder would take much longer to recover. That didn't mean that he couldn't force his arms to work if necessary, though.

'_Do I need to?' _ Kaito asked silently as two approached.

Hakuba pressed his lips together in a flat line as he took in Kaito's deceptively casual pose. It was clear to Hakuba's eyes that the thief in white was not leaning against the kitchen door merely for effect. The blood splattered liberally across the Kid's white suit had begun to darken in places but it was still vibrantly red (_too _red) near his shoulder. The top hat was pulled low over his eyes but that could not disguise the paleness of the visible skin. Kaito even had the audacity to use his injured arm to spin the Kid's signature card gun on one finger in an obvious threat.

Kaito met Hakuba's annoyed glare with an amused smile before making the card gun disappear with a showy flourish that made his vision go black around the edges. Kaito let the smile widen into an impish grin as he held up his hands in mock surrender.

"You have me at your mercy, Detective." Kaito said with Hakuba's voice. He wouldn't be able to hide his face from the doctor - he had to take Hakuba's word that the doctor was trustworthy and _that _didn't sit well at all - but that didn't mean that Kaito was going to give away his true voice as well.

The doctor arched his eyebrows and remarked, "What an interesting skill", before turning to Hakuba.

Hakuba sighed wearily and shook his head. "Please pay no mind to his antics. It will be less troublesome if you don't indulge him by reacting."

"Another lesson you learned the hard way?" The doctor asked Hakuba, who replied by averting his eyes.

When Kaito didn't abandon his post in the doorway quickly enough for the doctor's taste, he grabbed Kaito's elbow with such an air of authority that the thief was surprised long enough to be guided into a chair in the kitchen. Hakuba took advantage of the opportunity to relieve Kaito of the card gun. The British detective placed the card gun on the kitchen table, well out of arm's reach, and wandered back to the counter to boil more water for the tea he had been preparing before the doctor arrived.

"Boil some water for me," the doctor said as he opened his case and began sorting through it.

Hakuba replied mildly, "Would you like some tea as well?"

"Sure, but make it herbal," the doctor said. "Wouldn't want to risk something reacting badly with the painkillers your friend here..." the doctor squinted over the top of his glasses at Hakuba's back and frowned."And you are going to take."

"Of course," Hakuba said blandly. He closed the small square tin sitting on the counter, placed it back in a cupboard above the kettle, and pulled down a different tin of leaves.

Kaito winced and began the laborious task of removing the bloodied jacket and shirt while studiously observing Hakuba's conversations with the doctor. For all his verbal assurances that the doctor could be trusted, Hakuba was far too jumpy for Kaito's comfort and Kaito was fairly certain that it wasn't due to injuries the detective was trying to hide. He couldn't think of a time during the evening's chaos when Hakuba had the opportunity to seriously injure himself unless it occurred during the brief times that Kaito had not been fully conscious. It was possible, however unlikely, that Hakuba had taken a hit intended for the Kaitou Kid. The good doctor had vaguely suggested that Hakuba was once that sort of person.

Hakuba set down a pair of steaming cups and a large bowl with hot water. He turned and thrust his empty hand at Kaito with a demanding look. The detective's suit jacket - thoroughly stained by Kaito's blood - was folded over his other arm.

"What?" Kaito said flatly as he flicked his eyes between the hand and bloodied jacket.

"Give me those." Hakuba said, indicating the white jacket and blue shirt pooled around Kaito's waist.

Kaito was uncomfortably aware of how exposed he was sitting in a detective's kitchen in just the Kid's pants and tie and hat and monocle... with the detective's personal back-alley doctor poking at the hole in his shoulder. However, he refused to allow the situation to intimidate him. Kaito squared his shoulders as best he could and tilted his head, angling it to meet Hakuba's gaze under the brim of the Kid's hat while keeping the monocled eye concealed by the reflected light.

"You don't need these, detective." Kaito retorted in the Kaitou Kid's darker tones.

Hakuba blinked at the sudden switch and jerked his hand back for a moment. He wondered what prompted the Kid to switch from mimicking the British detective's voice to the Kaitou Kid's before understanding the reason a moment later. Hakuba held out his hand again but, this time, he added a 'gimmie' motion while sighing theatrically.

"I'm going to soak these in hopes of salvaging them before the blood dries completely and it's too late." Hakuba said.

Kaito continued to look unconvinced and fixed him with Kaitou Kid's coldest stare.

"I have in my possession," Hakuba added in a condescending tone, "that glove you left behind. I've had it long enough to run any tests I desired but I have _not_, if you care to recall my statement earlier regarding a lack of proof. Someone as intelligent as yourself should be able to understand what that means on your own. I can, however, leave these," Hakuba waved his hand at the bloodied clothes, "in the kitchen sink where you can watch them if it will make you feel better."

Kaito's expression didn't change but he began to feel a bit foolish despite the perfectly justified paranoia. He had nearly forgotten about the missing glove in the chaos after Nightmare's demise and, when he had the presence of mind to look for it later, couldn't find it among the Task Force's things. Kaito assumed that the glove had been taken by the ICPO and, safely out of the British detective's reach, put the matter out of his mind. On the other hand, Kaito had already verbally confirmed all of Hakuba's suspicions a short time ago so the issue was a bit of a moot point - except where it came to proving Kaito's identity to the rest of the world.

"Why should I trust you?" Kaito asked in the Kid's voice.

Hakuba raked a hand through his hair and looked away. "I'm not asking you to trust me wholly. Consider this a temporary cease-fire of sorts. I assure you that I have my reasons - good reasons - for assisting you but I cannot elaborate at this time."

"I see," Kaito said.

He shifted in his chair, wincing away from the doctor's probing fingers, and considered Hakuba's proposition for a few moments longer before coming to a decision. There wasn't much of a choice at this point, was there? Kaito reached into the pocket of his jacket and transferred the night's target to his pants while shooting Hakuba a look that dared him to comment. Hakuba, to his credit, didn't react beyond a slight quirk of the lips that was quickly smoothed into his customary infuriating smirk. Kaito carefully tugged the suit jacket and shirt free from where they pooled around his waist and surrendered them with his good hand.

When Hakuba reached out to accept the bloodied clothes, Kaito seized the detective's wrist in a punishing grip and pulled him off balance enough to stumble forward.

"Don't make me regret this," Kaito hissed in Hakuba's ear.

Hakuba turned to look straight into Kaito's eyes and nodded solemnly. Kaito waited until he was satisfied that Hakuba understood the risk Kaito was putting himself in by accepting Hakuba's aid. He released Hakuba's wrist and allowed the Kaitou Kid's mask to slip enough to grimace at the pain. Hakuba straightened and walked to the kitchen door with the intent of leaving the soiled clothes in the laundry room sink but hesitated with his hand still raised to push the door open. The thief's uncharacteristic, if prickly, display of trust was enough to make the young detective pause.

'_He's still the Kaitou Kid right now_,' Hakuba reminded himself harshly.

It was true that Hakuba trusted the doctor with own his life but could he trust the doctor with the Kaitou Kid's - with Kuroba Kaito's life? His secrets? Hakuba looked at the skinny dark haired boy sitting at his kitchen table and realized with a start that the Kaitou Kid was _just a kid_. He was a kid who is currently badly injured, probably in shock from the earlier attempt on his life, and at the mercy of a detective whose primary reason to be in Japan at all was to arrest him. It was a miracle that Kaito did not bolt at the first opportunity despite his injuries. There was enough evidence on Kuroba Kaito's upper body to prove the Kaitou Kid, despite appearances, could not always escaped unharmed and had a tendency to avoid seeking professional treatment.

Hakuba turned away from the door. He couldn't leave the Kid, leave Kuroba, like this. It was unsettling to see a disguised look of relief on Kaito's face, however briefly.

Hakuba swore internally. He wasn't keen on having blood contaminating his kitchen sink but he was less fond of the prospect of leaving Kaito alone with the doctor. He would have to apologize to Baaya later. Risking his own safety was one thing but Hakuba couldn't bring himself to put someone else, someone who was currently relying on him, in greater danger through negligence. One Kuroba had already fallen victim to such complacency and Hakuba would rather die before allowing another Kuroba to die on his watch.

"Are you really going to wash those in here?" Kaito asked, tilting his head curiously, while speaking in Hakuba's voice.

"...I must say that it's rather unsettling to hear my voice coming from your mouth." Hakuba said while filling the sink with cold water and soap. "But yes, I am. It would be careless to leave you alone with someone who is... under-qualified when it comes to dealing with you."

Kaito smiled a cryptic smile and inclined his head in an abbreviated bow.

"I am still here, you know," The doctor interrupted gruffly. To Kaito he said, "Press this firmly against the wound for a while. I need to look for an exit wound," and watched the thief with narrowed eyes until Kaito obeyed.

"I am aware," Hakuba said smoothly, "and I am grateful. Truly."

"You'd better be." The doctor said.

Hakuba continued. "However, it is true that you lack experience when it comes to dealing with patients such as him. I've chosen to remain here for your peace of mind as well as my own."

"Right... and this guy has nothing to do with it." The doctor scoffed as he reached for the hot water. "I'm not stupid, kid."

"And neither is he," Hakuba said. "Please, just humour me. The last thing we need is for more injuries to occur if the Kaitou Kid decides that he wants to leave."

Kaito obligingly turned one of the Kid's more mischievous smiles on the doctor and was rewarded with a frown that was slightly less certain of itself.

In reality, Kaito was not feeling well enough to go knocking out the doctor and escaping in the immediate future. The consequences of maintaining a proper Kaitou Kid worthy appearance was catching up and he was far too dizzy to do much more than sit upright and talk. He could still move his good arm, yes, but everything felt uncomfortably sore and weak. Kaito began to wonder if they had missed any open wounds and resisted the urge to check. Hakuba or the doctor would have said something by now if that were the case. It was probably blood loss.

Kaito watched as the bloodied clothes were submerged in the sink's cold water but Hakuba did not linger over them.

The blond-haired detective retrieved his cup of herbal tea and turned to lean against the kitchen counter. Without a jacket to conceal it, Kaito could clearly see the holstered gun tucked underneath Hakuba's left arm. Kaito tensed. He did not like how Hakuba appeared far too comfortable wearing a concealed weapon. Hakuba followed Kaito's line of sight and shrugged slightly. Hakuba allowed his gaze to settle briefly to the doctor's turned back, then on the Kid's card gun, before returning to Kaito's face.

Kaito relaxed marginally.

The message was clear enough even though the thief still didn't understand _why_. The card gun was out of reach and it would be suspicious if the detective returned the Kid's weapon after that little exchange with the doctor, so Hakuba was holding on to his own gun just in case. Just in case of _what_, Kaito wondered, but he knew Hakuba Saguru well enough to know that the British detective could be trusted in this situation.

Time passed slowly and Kaito sighed inwardly as he slouched in the chair.

It was boring waiting for the doctor's treatment to finish and Hakuba's unwavering scrutiny did little to alleviate the tension that settled over the kitchen. The magician in Kaito itched to do something to lighten the mood but every time Kaito shifted in his seat, the detective's intense blue eyes would focus on him and Kaito would freeze like a guilty child caught doing something naughty. Hakuba's disapproving glare was usually something Kuroba Kaito made an active effort to provoke in any situation, but even he realized that this was not the time to make light of the situation.

Eventually, the doctor stopped making annoyed and disapproving little noises and laid down his tools.

Hakuba stopped pretending to be interested in his tea, which had long since gone cold, and deliberately placed the cup on its saucer. He unfolded his arms and pushed away from the counter but did not approach. Instead, Hakuba waited patiently for the doctor to remove his latex gloves and rise.

Unable to stand the tension any longer, Kaito quipped with false lightness, "So, will I make it Doc?"

Hakuba's carefully neutral expression did not change, but his tone was dangerous. "Kaito...u, this is not the time."

"Your friend will be fine." The doctor said while balling his used gloves in a paper towel. "In fact, you're quite possibly one of the luckiest people alive right now."

Kaito paled slightly.

"What do you mean?" Hakuba demanded.

The doctor waved a hand at the Kaitou Kid's bandaged shoulder. "He received a gunshot to his upper body and, somehow, the bullet passed clean through. I won't bore you with the gruesome details but it's amazing that the bullet didn't cause more damage. As far as I can tell, it didn't come in contact with major blood vessels or organs nor did it strike a bone and shatter into a million pieces that may or may not have exited his body after doing some serious damage inside."

Hakuba recovered first from the news and glanced at Kaito before asking, "Will there be any permanent damage to the muscle?"

"Like I said... this kid is super lucky." The doctor laid a hand on Kaito's shoulder and said, "You should really buy a lottery ticket, kid."

"Uh," Kaito said intelligently.

"As to your question," the doctor continued, "It's hard to say for certain if there will be permanent damage, but I don't believe there will be a noticeable loss of strength or range of motion. Assuming that the wound is allowed to heal properly, that is."

"Understood," Kaito said and gave a sloppy salute with his good arm. He hadn't been looking forward to explaining away another potentially crippling injury to his mother. A few weeks of absolutely no acrobatics whatsoever was more than a fair trade, all things considered.

"You should be feeling better in a couple weeks depending on how fast you heal, but you won't be entirely better for quite some time." The doctor said to Kaito before turning his attention back to Hakuba. "Do you need a refresher course on treating wounds like this?"

Hakuba shook his head and replied quickly. "No, that will not be necessary."

"Of course not," the doctor said dryly. "I imagine that it'd be difficult for a genius like you to forget something like-"

"That's quite enough." Hakuba said sharply.

'_Just what kind of things did you do before coming here, Hakuba Saguru?_' Kaito wondered.

Feeling simultaneously fuzzy and jumpy from the antibiotics and painkillers that the doctor forced down his throat, Kaito decided suddenly that he could not resist giving voice to the curiosity that had been nipping all night. He was dying to know (a poor choice of words, Kaito thought absently) why Hakuba had access to and a history with a very discreet might-be-a-Yakuza doctor.

"It sounds like there is a story here," Kaito said with a merry grin.

"There is," The doctor confirmed with an answering grin.

"But it is not your story to tell," Hakuba said firmly and crossed his arms.

"Don't be such a spoil sport, Hakuba!" Kaito protested.

"No," Hakuba said flatly. "I am not here to provide entertainment."

In response, Kaito straightened in the seat and mentally pulled on his best Great Teen Detective of Europe mask.

"I give you permission to refresh my memory," he said to the doctor as Hakuba. Everything from the mannerisms to intonation was as if Hakuba Saguru had spoken the words themselves. The only thing lacking from the thief's impression was a face mask and dark blond wig to complete the transformation.

"Well, if you've changed your mind and it's okay now..." The doctor played along with a smile.

Hakuba heaved a sigh and scrubbed a hand over his face. "If you are feeling well enough to make a pest of yourself then it's safe to assume that you, doctor, may leave now."

"Trying to get rid of me before I spill anything embarrassing?" The doctor laughed as he cleaned and packed away his equipment. "Don't worry; you know I can keep my mouth shut."

"Perhaps," Hakuba said wearily. "But it has been a long night for us all and it would be best to call it a day. Besides, I wouldn't want to keep you from any prior engagements."

"It is getting late," the doctor conceded. "Very well. I'll leave it here and get out of your hair. I can see myself out, kid. You just keep an eye on that lucky friend of yours and keep him out of trouble."

"But what about that story?" Kaito protested.

"You'll have plenty of time in the near future to worm it out of Hakuba on your own." The doctor said as he brushed the wrinkles out of his coat.

"You want me to stay here?" Kaito yelped. "Why?"

"I've dealt with the worst but that wound still needs to be looked after. This kid here," the doctor waved a hand dismissively at Hakuba, "already has experience when it comes to this sort of thing. You're better off leaving it to him unless you'd rather check yourself into a hospital...? No, I didn't think so. So stay put and stop making that face."

"Thank you." Hakuba stepped close to the doctor and said nearly inaudibly, "I'll contact you later regarding payment."

The doctor bobbed his head in an abbreviated bow and strode out of the kitchen with medical kit in hand. Hakuba followed the doctor to the kitchen door and stopped. Hakuba watched the doctor leave with his arms crossed in such a way that left the detective's hand casually resting on the holstered gun. A few moments later came the sound of the front doors opening and closing followed by faint sound of a car engine that receded quickly into the night. Hakuba turned his head and met Kaito's eyes for a heartbeat before the detective disappeared from the doorway.

Kaito leaned over in the chair far enough to see Hakuba's reflection in a framed picture in the hallway.

The young detective peered out of a window near the front door for a long time before lowering his hand, allowing the opaque curtains to fall back in place. Hakuba proceeded to lock the door, scanned the entrance way with a critical eye, reached out to open a nearly hidden panel near the entrance way, and then entered a long code. Kaito was fairly certain that Hakuba was locking the gates and re-enabling the house's security system but it was impossible to see which keys Hakuba had pressed without standing up. Kaito gave a mental shrug and resolved to figure out the security code at the first opportunity.

Hakuba's reflection turned around and Kaito leaned back in the chair just as the detective entered the kitchen. Hakuba paused in the door and blinked at the smiling thief as if Hakuba was surprised to see Kaito still present and waiting patiently. Kaito smiled innocently in response to the narrow-eyed look of suspicion.

"It would appear that we will need to endure each other's company for longer than an evening," Hakuba said instead of asking what sort of mischief Kaito was planning.

"What, don't you enjoy my company?" Kaito said with a sunny smile.

Hakuba frowned.

"I'll prepare a guest room for you to use for the duration of your recovery," Hakuba said as if the words caused him physical pain.

"Perfect! We have so much to catch up on," Kaito said.

It felt like Kaito's conversation with Aoko and Akako had happened a lifetime ago but it had only been half a day. He had not forgotten the revelation that Hakuba was leaving Japan again for reasons unrelated to the Brit's education and parents. There was something important reported in that foreign newspaper and Kaito was determined to find out what Hakuba was hiding.

"I'm sure you're looking forward to snooping through my things as soon as my back is turned."

"Who, me?" Kaito said innocently. Too innocently for Hakuba's taste.

However, Kaito wasn't looking forward to spending a night locked in the home of a famous detective but the doctor's orders had to be considered. Another thing that kept Kaito from leaving as soon as his shoulder was bandaged was the nagging curiosity. Hakuba Saguru and Inspector Nakamori had not hesitated to put themselves in harm's way to protect the Kaitou Kid from an unseen shooter. Why? The behaviour of Aoko's father could be explained away as part of the standard operating procedure for a police officer with integrity but Hakuba was only a consultant and not (officially) a member of any police force. Yet.

What could Hakuba's "good reason" to ally himself with the Kaitou Kid be?

All of the so-called "great teen detectives" had a tendency to attract trouble through their curiosity and stubbornness... like some sort of curse. But of the three, Kaito found himself worrying about Hakuba Saguru the most. It was perhaps because due to proximity - the Osakan and the not-a-kid lived far from Kuroba Kaito's neighbourhood and these two moved in different crime-related circles. The Kaitou Kid rarely encountered those two unless the he specifically sought out their company. Hakuba Saguru, on the other hand, was extremely difficult to avoid if the British detective truly didn't want to be left out. Kaito suspected that part of the difficulty lay not in Hakuba's stubbornness but in the Kaitou Kid's own territorial tendencies. Hakuba Saguru had, like Inspector Nakamori and his team, claimed the Kaitou Kid as their exclusive prey and the Kaitou Kid had claimed them as "his" in turn.

"Kuroba, why are you still sitting here?"

Hakuba's voice cut through Kaito's fuzzy-headed musings.

Damn painkillers.

Kaito blinked owlishly at the blond detective who was leaning over the dark haired thief with a look of concern. When Kaito turned his attention to the rest of the room and realized with annoyance that he had somehow missed when Hakuba left the room. Hakuba was now wearing a different button-up shirt than before and the sink was now devoid of bloody clothes. The bandages and gauze that the doctor left behind on the table were also missing.

Kaito answered with the first thing that came to mind. "I'm more comfortable here than I would be in that guest room of yours."

"Do you really want to have this argument right now?" Hakuba sighed. "Need I remind you that our ceasefire agreement is still in effect and, thus, you need not worry about arrest?" He paused and added, "At least, not by myself and not in the near future."

Secretly, Kaito was pleased that his ability to recall conversations when not fully aware was still mostly functional. He may not have been able to remember exactly what Hakuba had been saying before Kaito tuned back into the outside world, but at least the response had been correct. All signs were pointing to Hakuba as a mother hen type when it came to injuries and the last thing Kaito needed to top off the evening was fussing.

"Not really," Kaito conceded.

"Good." Hakuba uncrossed his arms and relaxed marginally but was no less alert than before.

"But I should warn you, Detective," Kaito said. "If you attempt any tricks while I'm here, I will be obligated to return the favour."

"I return the words to you," Hakuba retorted. "Try anything and I'll respond in kind."

Kaito flashed the Kaitou Kid's sharp smile. "Okay then! I now place myself in your loving care."

Hakuba rolled his eyes and muttered something uncomplimentary under his breath in English.

"Get up," he said. "I'll show you to the room you will be staying in."

Kaito pushed himself to his feet slowly and waited patiently for the spots to leave his vision. After regaining his equilibrium, he retrieved the card gun and tucked it into the back of his pants. It would be too suspicious if Kaito left the card gun behind given the situation they were in. The card gun that Hakuba confiscated wasn't the only weapon that Kaito regularly kept hidden on his person but there was no reason to hand Hakuba an excuse to conduct a full-body search.

Hakuba patiently waited until Kaito waved a hand to indicate that the detective should lead the way. Hakuba then reached out, firmly grabbed the thief's good arm, and steered him through the house the same way any officer would deliver a suspect to their holding cell. Kaito couldn't help but laugh as the evening's absurdities became too much to bear. Hakuba responded with an annoyed noise and a light shove to his uninjured shoulder.

Even after all that talk about trust and secrets and working together, they could not help but fall into the same pattern of hunter and hunted, detective and phantom thief. How long could their ceasefire possibly hold before one of them snapped?

Or, more worryingly, what if the ceasefire did hold? How long would it be before they became too accustomed to an equal's presence at their back to revert to their proper roles?

Kuroba Kaito knew he couldn't depend on only Jii's help forever and things were rapidly escalating to the point where the old man simply wouldn't be able to keep up. More than once, Kaito had wanted to draw one of those genius teen detectives to his side and enlist their aid. Surely one up-and-coming detective could be spared for a fool's quest? There must be one that would not mind chasing the shadows of a moonlight thief.

"We're here. This is where you will stay." Hakuba announced and released Kaito's arm. "This room is primarily used when relatives come to visit so don't bother looking for any of my belongings."

"Spoilsport," Kaito said.

Hakuba said dryly, "Having a truce is one thing. Giving you fodder to blackmail me with is another."

Don't forget, the Kaitou Kid whispered in the back of Kaito's mind, there was one detective who had already strayed maddeningly close to their side. All they really needed to do was drop a few hints and the blonde's innate curiosity and sense of honour would take care of the rest...

But as soon as the temptation struck, Kaito reminded himself that the hunt for Pandora was a Kaitou Kid's - a Kuroba's - responsibility and no one else's.

"Why are you doing all this?" Kaito asked in a low voice.

Hakuba hesitated and his eyes slid away to focus on something vaguely left of Kaito's ear. "I have my reasons," he said at last but did not elaborate.

"Which are?" Kaito prompted.

Hakuba turned away. "In any case, there are some clothes my relatives left behind in the wardrobe. Some of them should fit you so use those for now. I'll wake you up in time for breakfast tomorrow."

No, Kaito thought as he watched Hakuba walk away, the odd ceasefire will only last until Kaito was well enough to go home. The Kaitou Kid only stole things that could be returned. Loyalty was not something to be taken lightly.

-tbc-


End file.
